Medica Mercenaries
by LordLenne
Summary: A futuristic world where meals were premium, life was simple... and a society prevalent with psychics. Your future was determined by your psychic ability, as all conflicts are solved through psychic battles. On his 16th birthday, Ness's future is evaluated in the lowest ranking careers. With two others, he joins the bottom-feeding Medica Mercenaries.
1. The World of Psychics

Chapter 1: The World of Psychics  


 _The sound of a phone ringing. Rough carpet prickled bare feet. A clicking sound follows, answered by the voice of a young boy._

"… _Hello?"_

" _Ah, you're home. Good."_

" _Dad? Is that you?"_

 _A weak, hesitating smile on both sides, then silence._

" _I can't talk long, son. Can you come outside? Right now?"_

" _Oh—! Yeah, OK!"_

 _The phone is gently placed back to its original position. Footsteps trampled quickly from the rough carpet to the chilling echo of the next room's wooden floor. The rustling of sandals whiff, and a bare hand twists the doorknob. A low groan creaks as the door opens._

" _Dad!"_

 _Footsteps trample even quicker than before, rushing up to the front gate. The boy meets his father face-to-face, a reunion all too suspicious that gave him a realization._

" _What's wrong, Dad? Why aren't you at work?"_

" _It's your birthday, isn't it? I brought you a present. Here, hold out your hand."_

 _Bare skin hesitates at the feeling of graspable, hardened wool. A small smile, and then a growing grin._

" _Wow! It's the hat you promised me!"_

" _It's a very special hat, son. No one makes a cap like this anymore. There's nothing else like it in the world… and I want you to have it."_

" _You're serious? You're really giving it to me? Thanks, Dad! This is so cool!"_

" _Like I said, it's very special and I need you to take care of it."_

" _No problem, Dad! I promise to take good care of it!"_

" _Good. Now promise me one more thing… keep it with you, always. Even when you're all grown up, I want you to keep it safe, OK?"_

" _Uh-huh! You got it, Dad! I'm gonna wear it all the time! I'm never, ever gonna take it off!"_

" _Good. And… think of me when you wear this hat."_

" _Uh-huh! I will!"_

 _A light pitched ring sounds between them._

" _Look at the time... Dad's got to go. You be a good boy now. Make sure to take good care of your sister too, OK?""_

 _Footsteps echo softly even as the wet ground threatens to muffle them._

" _Huh? You're leaving? But you just got here…"_

" _I'm sorry, son, but I have to. There's some work only your old man can do. I have to go. Good-bye, son… …and remember, think of me when you wear that cap. Take care of it. Don't forget, all right?"_

" _I won't! But… Dad, where are you going?"_

"… _Far away. I have to go to a place that is very far away."_

 _The roaring of a car engine, louder than before. Tires rapidly dig into gravel, and roll away gradually._

" _Dad…?"_

 **~W~W~W~**

The year is 23XX.

Humans eventually discovered the supernatural potential of the powerful mind. Those who could wield such mind powers—known as psychics—possessed mental capabilities that pushed humanity's evolution beyond expectations. As a result, psychics contributed to a major part of advancement in science and technology. Psychic powers became so commonplace that technology revolved around their work, and such abilities became more of a plaything rather than something to admire and worship.

No one disliked psychics—it was hard not to. Being able to use psychic abilities on common ground provided a sense of amusement to everyday life, and just seeing powers used by others was satisfying to watch. Combined with everyday life of endless and nourishing food and self-revitalizing nature, it was safe to say that humanity reached its pinnacle as a civilization.

Despite that, the dream for eternal peace seemed rather… uncertain. It was without a doubt that those who had power would learn to use their abilities for evil, falling to the sinister desires to gain more power. Because of this, crime was still an apparent element that intimidated the world of psychics. But with favorable access to psychic powers, it was up to those who remained adamant with justice to maintain order and keep the world free from danger...

…

…

…

" **WAKE UP, BIG BROTHER!"**

" _Gaaah!"_

Ness wakes up with a cold sweat racing down his spine. Next to him, a blonde girl stares at him with her dark marine eyes in the form of playful anger.

"Honestly, Ness!" His little sister, Tracy, crosses her arms and taps her feet like she was an age-old caretaker rather than the youth she is. "Don't you know what today is?!"

"…My birthday?" Ness answered, still half-asleep.

"Yes, _and_ also the first day of school! Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you get to sleep in and skip! And don't you even forget about your psychic assessment too!"

"Oh, right…" The young man yawned afterwards, casually flopping half of his body onto the bedside. He rubbed his eyes with the little bit of energy that was piling as he woke up.

Tracy sighed. "What would you do without me?"

"Probably be a jobless good-for-nothing that lies in bed and play games all day and night," Ness joked, weakly chuckling after. He patted his sister's head, who appreciated the gesture, but shrugged it off.

"Come on. Get dressed, grab a pill, and let's get going. I'll wait for you outside."

"Got it."

Once Tracy left the room, Ness walked to his closet and grabbed the next clean set of clothes. As he changed, he investigated his mirror and stared at himself. His eyes seemed a little more shaded with violet than yesterday.

After changing, he finally donned his favorite red and blue-billed cap hanging right beside the mirror. He finished the morning with a brave smile.

Right before he walked out the door, he pressed three buttons on a wall panel. The apparatus beside it reacted and spit out a yellow pill. Ness threw the pill into his mouth and boldly swallowed it, hoping its effects would last just before he craved the lunch of the day.

Tracy had been waiting outside as expected. Together, they left their apartment and headed towards the main entrance and exit of the complex. Just as they turned the corner, they met the apartment owner and hardworking maid.

"Oh, good morning!" Jackie, landlord of the Yado Apartments, greeted the two youngsters walking towards them.

"Good morning." Tessie, the sole maid of the complex, stopped sweeping and curtseyed to the guests.

"Good morning!" The siblings greeted them back.

Jackie eyed the two of them up and down, grinning. "Well, look at you two! All gussied up and ready to go for your first day of school?"

"That's right," Ness answered.

" _And_ , Ness has his psychic assessment after!" Tracy added in.

"Oh, that's right…" Jackie mumbled. "That's that thing where they evaluate you based on your abilities, and tell you what career is best for you, right?"

"Basically," Ness confirmed. "It's my first step to getting a job."

"Oh, a job…!" Jackie gasped happily. "That's wonderful! You know, we've been worried about you both… and it's not just because of the rent, you know!"

"You've been worrying about us?"

Tessie nodded to them. "But of course. Not a single word from your father for years… and then a letter comes out of the blue, telling us he's passed away? It must have been terrible for you both…"

"It was, but we've managed," Ness told.

"Yeah, living off their savings for years… and a little bit from my part-time job," Tracy added, almost sarcastically.

"Well, now it's your big brother's turn to get a job!" Jackie exclaimed. He looked sternly at the older sibling. "You better not come back without one! And it better be good pay, too, for both of your sakes!"

"I'll do my best," Ness promised. "I promised my Dad I'd take care of both of us, so I can't let him down."

"That's the spirit! Now go on, both of you. You don't want to be late!"

"Thanks! I'll do my best!"

Tracy waved her hand back as the two adults saw them off. "Bye-bye!"

 **~W~W~W~**

 _Earthbound Academy_ , a school for children of all ages. While children were educated on basic things such as English, Math, and Social Studies, one's advancement was determined by their innate psychic ability, their natural intelligence, or both. Once you became an adult, you were either a good-for-nothing, stuck with the career you were given at sixteen, or took graduate studies in the vast concept of _**PSIence**_ (pi-ɛs 'aɪəns) that shaped the world that was today.

Ness and Tracy followed the straightforward path to the academy. The entire campus was viewable from just their apartment window, as it was one of the most special buildings in the world.

An audible sigh was heard from Tracy, and Ness looked down in concern. "Something wrong?"

Tracy glanced at her brother, and then pointed her head in the direction across the street. Four young boys were grouped together, but two of them were engaged in a fight. Ness found the sight a little surprising, seeing as the two boys were carrying expensive devices in their possession.

"I'm just a little jealous," Tracy stated.

"That those kids have a PHD?" Ness finished. His sister nodded. "Their parents must be hard workers... or scientists." He guessed logically.

"Don't you mean PSIentists?"

"Well… the word works for both. Science revolves around psychic powers these days."

"Okay… but yeah, I just wish I had my own PHD."

Ness questioningly looked at his sister. "What would you do with one?"

"Have _PSI-Fights_ , of course! And then I could get stronger, and then I could get a really good job, like… working in the police force! The police force pays really good! They work right under the government!"

Ness chuckled weakly. They stopped right at the school gate and he kneeled to pat his sister's head. "I appreciate you taking care of me ever since Mom and Dad passed away. But… leave the money troubles to me from now on."

"But you don't have a PHD either… what do you plan to do?"

"I'll figure something out. Just trust in me. Don't forget how strong I am! I'm sure I'll land a really good job with my skills."

Tracy grinned and nodded. "Okay. I believe in you, big brother."

"Good. Now, you go to your class. I'll see you around dinner time, OK?"

"OK!"

Ness watched his little sister run off with the other kids, rushing to their class building. He looked at the clocktower standing tall in the center of the school grounds. It was almost 9 o'clock. He nodded to confirm his agenda for the day, and then moved forward.

 **~W~W~W~**

The last class of the day was the subject of _PSIence_. It was a required focus, as anyone can develop psychic abilities at any age, but performing them required certain measures. It was necessary to teach young children the safety of psychic powers, and to help develop them as it stays with the rest of their lives.

The class's instructor was a young lady, who kindly greeted her class with decent expectations. She announced that the day's class was only going to be a review of PSIence… based on the supplemental summer review homework.

Among the forty or so students in the room, Ness seemed to be the only one who had forgotten to do his homework. Not that it mattered much as he was aware of some PSIence concepts beforehand, as basic ideas were known even to kindergarteners. Regardless, he kept a straight face in his seat. He just hoped he wouldn't have to answer a question he didn't know the answer to.

"Let's start at the very beginning," the instructor began. She clicked a button on a remote, and a projector displayed a high-quality slideshow to guide the class along.

"Psychic powers are supernatural abilities that derive from the human mind. With the right mind, anyone can conjure fire, water or ice, and even lightning! Some are also able to read another one's thoughts, or have a conversation entirely through the mind. Indeed, psychic powers are a wonder in this world. That's why everyone is encouraged to never underestimate the psychic potential of yourself—each and every one of you. However, while psychic powers do exist, they aren't just available to everyone at any time. _You will always need the help of a certain device._ "

The next slide displayed an image of said hinted device.

"Can anyone tell me what this is?"

The instructor held up a circular object in her hand, looking exactly the same as what was portrayed on the screen. It was immediately recognizable as wristband. Some were about to respond with such an answer, but another had responded first and differently.

"That's a _**PHD**_!"

"Correct. Now, can anyone tell me what a PHD is? What does it stand for, and what does it do?"

A young girl raised her hand first, and was called upon. "PHD stands for _**Psion Helper Device**_. It's a gadget for psychics to do PSI-Fights with."

"Yes, that's what PHD stands for… but I'm looking for an answer that's a bit more broad. We'll get to PSI-Fights soon—but, _how does a PHD help a psychic_?"

A different girl raised her hand. "A PHD reacts to the _**psions**_ emitted from our minds. When there's a certain ability we want to invoke, the PHD reacts by reading our psions and processes them."

"Correct! Everyone has psions, but alone, they're just psions. That is why the PHD was invented: to process our psions into something more tangible and usable for us. A PHD is a psychic's best friend in today's world. They are a little expensive on the market these days… but they are required to unleash your psychic powers. Which brings me to my next point…"

On the next screen, a male and female teenager were staring at each other with a PHD in their possession. In retrospect, it seemed like the two were only having an expressionless staring contest.

The instructor continued. "Can anyone tell me what is happening here?"

A male student answered. "Those two are having a _**PSI-Fight**_."

"Good! Now, how is that possible?" she asked the same student.

"It's because of their PHDs. The PHDs create an imaginary fighting arena called an _**Animorbis**_ made from two people's minds, where each person's psions fight with each other… right?"

"Right! In today's world, a PHD is required to engage in a PSI-Fight, because _the only way you can 'battle' with someone else's mind is through a PHD's help_. When two minds conflict with each other, it creates psions agitated with emotions. Both PHDs react to their agitated psions, and puts each person's mind into an Animorbis to the arena where they compete with each other—almost like you're spirited away. Your physical body may be unconscious, but your mind is fighting another in the Animorbis."

The next screen displayed something extraordinarily relatable to a PHD holder. It was a first-person view of a familiar Animorbis environment: a fighting arena with various walls and obstacles with a background modeled after a nearby park within the city. The center of the view was the female example from the previous slide—looking fuzzy and rather spiritual-like.

"Who can tell me what happens in a PSI-Fight?"

Another student raised their hand. "Both people fight each other using psychic attacks like _psychokinesis_."

"Yes! Now, how is that possible when in the Animorbis?"

The same student answered back. "While you're in the Animorbis, your psions react with your PHD. You think of what kind of psychokinesis you want to use, and the PHD helps create your attack using your psions."

"Right! Now, _psychokinesis isn't the only way to win a fight_. Your psions can simply just clash with your opponent with no specific attack… in the Animorbis, this feels like you're just punching and kicking the other person, which can work if your attacks hit. By landing successful hits, you deplete your opponent's psions. Once the PHD senses that someone has nearly no amount of psions left, it reacts and ends the fight on your behalf."

A student raised their hand, wanting to ask a question. "If PSI-Fights are common these days… why aren't PHDs as common and cheaper?"

"Good question. Unfortunately, PHDs are not cheap to make. They need to be stable and process the average person's psions with enough speed and accuracy. To achieve this requires a lot of time and money to manufacture and reproduce. Not to mention… PHDs can be quite fashionable in colors and styles when they're a wristband or bracelet, and sometimes a watch! Fashion is just another factor when it comes to making sure a PHD works just fine."

Another student raised his hand. "What do you do if someone has a PHD, but you don't?"

"Unfortunately, you can't do anything. You need a PHD to solve conflicts these days. Without one, you're just a regular person. Of course… if there's a fight that needs to be solved but you can't do anything, you can always call for help, such as school staff, or the police squad."

The teacher perked up, and lifted a finger to keep a sudden thought clear. "One thing to keep in mind… just because someone has a PHD, doesn't mean they're an experienced psychic. A PHD is only something that assists in _creating_ psychokinetic energy. How powerful that energy is, or how fast you can create it, is entirely up to how much psions a person innately possesses. _Generally, the more psions someone has, the more powerful they are_. _But the tables can turn if you are skilled enough when it comes to a PSI-Fight."_

She ends the slideshow, and then picks up a metallic bracelet to put onto her wrist. "Unfortunately, we can't give out anything like test PHDs. But, I'm willing to bet a few of you have a PHD of your own. I've always believed first-hand experience is the best teacher. That said, would anyone care for a friendly sparring match?" She bended her arm and pumped a fist upwards. "If you manage to beat me, then you'll earn some extra credit points for the entire class!"

Nearly half the class stood up with PHDs pulled out or equipped onto them, eager to fight the professor. Others were excited enough to watch a friendly PSI-Fight occur before their eyes during school hours—with a teacher, no less. Psychic battles were indeed the highlight of everyday life.

Everyone's attention was on the professor and the first brave student. Right before the Animorbis formed, Ness meekly slipped out of the room, sighing.

" _No point in watching one, honestly._ " He looked left and right through the empty hallways. " _Maybe I'll have an early lunch."_

 **~W~W~W~**

There weren't as many people as he expected to be in the cafeteria, seeing as he left his class early than he was supposed to. It wasn't a recent habit to skip classes, but he just didn't want to watch something if he couldn't partake in it. PSI-Fights were like video games— _nothing is more boring than watching someone else play unless you could be a part of it too_. And without a PHD, he couldn't do anything.

As he punched the wall panel to order his food, Ness thought about the job he might land. He was confident of his own abilities. In fact, after comparing just how stronger his psions were compared to his sister, he _had_ to be confident. Though he never put them to practical use in a PSI-Fight before, he knew he had a substantial amount of psions enough to hold his ground in a battle. Ever since he learned of this fact, he often thought about how powerful his psychokinetic attacks could be. He would even imagine his corporal body in Animorbis, punching and shooting simple psion waves at his weaker opponent, overpowering him with pure mental strength.

Most curious to him, however, was what power he had latent within that made his eyes change color from blue to purple. He had not known anyone else that had eyes as rare as his own. Biological changes such as these were usually a side effect of strong latent psions stored up without a medium to unleash them often, such as everyday PSI-Battles. It was never a problem in psychic history, in fact, it could be a sign of overwhelming strength or an hidden ability unique to him… or it could just be nothing. He'll only find out for sure at his psychic assessment, which was more than an hour away.

With time to kill, perhaps he could take his time savoring his food. It was, after all, food produced by the government, and it was always top quality in both appearance and taste. At the end of the lunch line, he grabbed his tray of food spit out by a mechanical peripheral: a tender and fine cut of medium-rare steak.

As he sat down, he noticed a face looking towards his direction. An inquisitive blond, probably around the same age as him, had immediately shifted his head down when their eyes met. It was an often misconception that when someone was looking at you, they were usually looking past you or beside you, staring at something else. But this particular boy made it seem otherwise so obviously that Ness became curious… but not enough to bother asking him personally. It was of little matter to him right now: a fresh hot meal was right in front of him.

 **~W~W~W~**

After the school day was completed, Ness set off to his next destination: the _PSIence Research Laboratory._ At the reception desk, he was guided to his scheduled appointment. A government-appointed scientist greeted him and brought him to an assessment room.

The psychic assessment was a simple test that required little effort from the examinee. All Ness had to do was lay on a bed with sensors attached to his head, shoulder, and chest. The sensors, designed to detect psions, are able to tell the strength of the examinee's latent psions in both a resting and agitated state. Achieving reads on agitated psions was possible by sending harmless electric signals through the sensors, which stimulate the owner's brain and their psions. In addition to this, the examiner also uses a PHD to send analytical psions connected to the sensors, which can provide insight to the examinee's aptitude when it came to a PSI-Fight.

The assessment lasted only a half-hour at best, and it was both exciting and bizarrely relaxing. Ness felt like he just woke up from a short nap and was enthusiastic to hear the results. The scientist made did a quick overview of the final report before printing the summary. Face-to-face in chair, Ness leaned in to make sure he didn't miss a word.

"As you know, the career scale is ranged from 0 to 1000," the scientist reminded.

"And my score is—?!"

"…100."

"100? One _hundred_? You sure you're not missing a 0?"

" _One hundred_. I'm positive."

Ness's mouth dropped. "How?!"

The scientist sighed, looking through the report to reconfirm the data. "Well, you do have strong psions…"

"Well, that's gotta be a good start!" Ness cheered lowly.

"…but unfortunately, it seems they can't create any offensive psychokinesis."

"… _Huh?_ "

"It is as I said. Your psions aren't compatible to create common psychokinesis attacks. According to the report… while your psion signals are strong individually, if they try to process and merge through a PHD, they would end up collapsing as the concentration won't be able to hold long enough in a tangible psychokinetic form. A bolt of fire would extinguish upon release, a jolt of electricity would fade before it could reach your opponent… and etcetera."

"But… there must be something I can do in a PSI-Fight, right?"

"Unfortunately, it seems your best option is close-combat, and we both know how bad of an idea that usually is if your opponent is able to use psychokinesis. Curiously enough, you do have one kind of offensive PK… but it seems to be a unique form that our machines aren't able to read. You'll have to get a PHD to personally figure it out. But because of that, your offensive PSI ranking is still very low. If you only have one form of attack, you don't get variety, and in a PSI-Fight, it can be easy to predict."

"… _Great_."

"You do have something else that is unique, however. It seems that _you can conjure healing PSI_ … but unfortunately, that's not very helpful either."

"But healing PSI is rare! Isn't being able to heal a good thing?"

" _All healing PSI take a substantial amount of time to complete_. Psions processed to destroy is easy… processed to heal, on the other hand, takes time because they must identify the damage that is dealt first before reversing their effects. In a real PSI-Fight, surely you can't expect your opponent to give you time to recover, do you?"

"I guess not…"

The scientist closed the report. "If you were able to use healing PSI in reality, I'm sure you would have a higher career score. But since PSI is locked to use in an Animorbis, it doesn't help you a lot. Not to mention that the only harm to worry about nowadays is mental strain post-PSI-Fight. We have a hospital, but today's technology can do a better job faster than healing PSI."

"So, I'm at the bottom of the barrel, huh…" Ness sighed.

"Don't beat yourself up too much about it. There's still job options for you at a score of 100."

"Really?! What are they?! I'll do it!"

"Well…"

 **~W~W~W~**

" _A. Freaking._ _ **MERCENARY**_ _?!"_

Ness stamps along the ground as he trots down the hallway. Upset at the report in his hand, he forgot he was in a public area, and calmed the scowl on his face.

A mercenary could be defined as something akin to a vigilante. While their goal is to help maintain peace, they are usually given jobs that the police force don't want to bother dealing with. The range of jobs typically deal with trivial conflicts or situations that a single policeman could handle. They were authorized to use PHDs to help solve conflicts as needed, since their only method of pay came directly from the client. Even then, the pay isn't usually good, and that's _**if**_ they can finish the job before the police squad or other competing mercenaries do. Because of the competitive nature and low pay, mercenaries were seen as bottom-feeders eating the scraps of other jobs.

" _This sucks!"_ Ness yelled loudly in his head. " _I've been waiting my whole life to see what I can do, and my best bet is one of the worst jobs in the world?!"_

Ness looked down at the folder of his report. " _Not to mention… if that scientist was right about not being able to use psychokinesis, then I can't even fight! What mercenary group would hire someone who can't fight? I'm basically a good-for-nothing! Some birthday this is…_ "

When he looked up, he saw a nearby examination room open automatically. Accompanied by a kind-looking female scientist and a dorky-freckled male scientist, he slowly remembered the face of the timid blond he saw at the school cafeteria. He was looking down at the floor, paused, lifted his head, and looked around. Ness was too focused on what was so odd about the boy that he didn't notice the blond perked when their eyes met again, and then quickly retreated away with the scientists shortly after. Watching them walk away, Ness shook his head and got rid of the trivial thought quickly.

He looked down at his report again. " _I can't go back home jobless. I have to try applying to places at least. But one look at this report and they'll shut me down quickly… but I still have to try. For Tracy's sake… and for Dad_."


	2. The Medica Mercenaries

Chapter 2: The Medica Mercenaries

"No."

" _No."_

"Definitely _no._ "

"No."

" _Get out, you idiot."_

"NO!"

The door shut on Ness's face once more. He applied to all the mercenary groups advertised, but not a single one held any interest in hiring him after reading his profile. Ness hung his head in disappointment as he slid his feet along the concrete.

" _Man… what am I going to do? At this rate, I'll be jobless forever_."

Ness looked at the piece of paper in his hand, which was a copy of names of all the mercenary companies in the city. He visited everywhere possible, even one that was far from his residence, but still managed to land nothing. There was one name left to apply to, but even he lost motivation to see if it was worth going to. Still, it was his last chance, and it wouldn't hurt him more than he felt at this moment. The day was still bright, so he could still go right now. He sighed, reread the name one more time, and made his way to the location.

To his surprise, the final mercenary group was the closest location to his home residence, so he felt good that once he got rejected, he didn't need to worry about not making it home on time. However, when he got to the location, he was taken aback by the building. The building, while made of durable metal fashioned by modern architecture, looked relatively smaller than all the other mercenary groups. The front gate looked slightly crooked, and the front lawn had two meek bushes uncared for with a couple of weeds laying around. The property felt more like someone's tiny house rather than a headquarters for mercenaries. The only redeeming factor was the neon name hung above the front door.

" _Medica Mercenaries_ …" Ness reread the name. " _They sound like nurses that run around the city saving lives or something. But do people like that actually exist here? Maybe they'll consider my healing PSI…"_

Ness didn't know what to expect, but why bother, when he had a high chance of getting shut down anyways? Though, holding the small hope that he could still land the job, he opened the door, and headed inside.

It was just as he expected. The interior was very simple. The reception area was one large room. The lounge was only two cheap-looking sofas split by a low steel table under a modest ceiling fan. Besides two small bookcases of thick books and cleaning supplies, and small boxes that looked like they should be unpacked, there weren't many decorative items compared to the other mercenary headquarters. There was an office desk and a rough-looking man sitting calmly at his desk right next to the lounge couches, which only added to how poorly adorned the place seemed to be.

" _Am I… in the right place?_ " Ness wondered. There was a neon signpost next to the office desk that rotated the name of the mercenary group to confirm his suspicions. Ness walked further into the room, catching the attention of a male teenager sitting in the sofa closest to the desk. The boy looked about the same age as Ness, maybe a little similar in hair style and facial features, but he seemed a bit too carefree and lax. A red neckerchief was the sole item that set the two apart. Their eyes immediately met.

"What?" the other male questioned. "What do you want?"

"I'm… interested in becoming a mercenary?" Ness answered.

A small smirk placed over the boy's grin only for a moment. "That right? In that case, you'll want to talk to the scary-looking guy over there. He's the boss." He shifted his head towards the mentioned man. Looking closer, the man wore a sharp facial structure with a wild block of hair and fearsome red sunglasses. As Ness walked over, he noticed the fancy chair the man was sitting in. It looked like the chair could roll along a rail implanted into the ground, leading into a second room behind him. Behind the man's head, a name was imprinted into the chair: "Teddy."

"So, you're here to become a mercenary?" the man named Teddy inquired, overhearing them. "Right… normally we would schedule an interview, but I rather get this over with now."

Ness's hopes of getting a job slightly shot up. He didn't ask to look at his profile immediately—in fact, he skipped straight to an interview. Now that he was this far, he had to land the job.

"Let's get straight to it," Teddy began. "Have you ever worked as a mercenary before?"

Ness decided to be honest, but upbeat with his answer. "No, sir! This will be my first time!"

"THEN DON'T BE COCKY!" Teddy immediately raised his voice, making Ness jump a little. "Okay, forget that. Moving on… you got a PHD?"

"I… can't afford one," Ness settled.

Teddy nodded, sympathizing with the answer. "Mmm… yeah, well, that's why you're here, isn't it? To get a job and make some cash."

The other male teenager had come up to Ness's side without their noticing, smirking at the answer. "You look dirt-poor. Almost as poor as our office is."

Teddy shifted his head at the other boy. "Hey, enough outta you! You're no Mr. Moneybags yourself either!"

The boy kept smiling, but hung is head as if he meekly agreed with the fact.

"Anyway…" Teddy continued, looking back at Ness. "I'm sorry, but I need an experienced guy with his own PHD. I just can't afford to hire an amateur."

"What're you talking about?!" the other male protested. "We can't afford to hire anyone who's _not_ an amateur!" He crossed his arms rather proudly. "Besides, I'm sick of being the new guy! We need someone I can push around!" His voice softened to a very low grumble that only Ness could hear. " _I'm sick of dealing with the chief on my own, too…"_

"What was that, Ninten?" Teddy scowled at him.

"Nothing!"

Teddy turned back to Ness. "Listen, kid. Even if we did hire you, we don't have a PHD to spare, so you'll need to get one somewhere. If you don't have a PHD, you can't do what a mercenary's supposed to do: _have PSI-Fights_."

Ness knew that was the truth, but he didn't have a way to obtain a PHD for his own. This was the longest he's stayed in a mercenary office, so he still had a better chance than nothing.

"Please, I'll do anything!" Ness bargained. "My life is already rock-bottom because of my psychic assessment, and having nothing to support me and my little sister will only make things worse! I promise I'll do anything you want without a complaint!"

"See? Check out that enthusiasm!" Ninten tried to support the new applicant. "He wants this job more than I do! …Wait, that came out wrong."

"None of that really matters, though," Teddy restated. "The simple fact is we don't have money to buy you a PHD. Not even a junk PHD… and before I forget, lemme see that profile of yours."

Ness disappointingly handed him his folder, and Teddy opened it, skimming through the contents.

"Aw, but… we really need some fresh blood around here, Teds! We've got too much work and not enough people!"

Teddy raised his voice again, directed at Ninten. "YOU DON'T PAY THE BILLS AROUND HERE, SO SHUT UP ALREADY!" The stern man looked back at the folder again. Then, he shook his head, pinching the area between his eyes. "Those government stuck-ups rated you by quantity, not quality, did they?"

Ness chuckled nervously, silently confirming the fact.

Teddy nudged an eyebrow after looking at another section. "Oh-ho... you can use healing PSI."

"Hey, just like me!" Ninten chipped in.

"Is that good?" Ness asked.

"There is a reason why we're called _Medica Mercenaries_ ," Teddy answered. "There aren't many healers around today, probably because people spend time trying to develop attack PSI than support. While a psychic can offer healing PSI in PSI-Fights, if you try to jump into someone else's fight to help an ally, _don't expect your opponent to let you do that so easily_. And even then, _we're still required to fight offensively to get the job done_ , and it's tough without the power or variety to back it up. "

"But Teds, I got _PK Beam_!" Ninten reminded. "I just need to grow stronger to use _Omega_ and I'll start raking in the cash!"

Teddy slammed his hands on his desk. "THAT'S ONLY IF YOU CAN DO YOUR JOB RIGHT AND WIN MORE THAN YOU LOSE!"

Ninten winced back, whispering lowly. " _Yikes_ … _well, he's not wrong_."

Teddy sighed, as if he hit his last nerve, but kept his cool just for the fresh face. He tossed the folder onto the desk towards Ness. "Sorry, pal. You look nice enough, but you might as well forget it."

Right before Ness turned away, a ringtone echoed loudly from the chief's pocket. He quickly retrieved his phone, gasped in amazement at the name of the caller, and answered the call.

"Medica Mercenaries, _we seal the deal with our heals_! This is Teddy." A moment more, and Teddy's scary-looking face unexpectedly turned into a modest smile. He rocked back and forth in his chair, as if unable to contain his joy. "Ah, how are you today? You're sounding lovely as usual!"

Ninten smirked and pointed at him. "Lovely? What? Is that a woman? Teds, have you got a girlfriend?!"

The speedily change in Teddy's expressions continued to impress Ness. " _Shut up, you!_ Oh, yes, yes! We'll be right on it… yes, of course! We'd love to! Right… got it. I'll send some help over right away." He closed his phone. "We've got work, Ninten. _Standard burglary._ And the police squad is fighting there right now."

"Aw man… I don't want to go if the police squad is already there…!" Ninten protested. "By the way, who just called?"

Teddy slammed the table, once more. "SHUT YOUR YAP AND GET GOIN'! Get to the _PSIence Research Laboratory_. The request is coming from the lab director."

Ninten's face lit up. "Ooh, _Paula_?! Okay, I'll go! Leave it to me!"

"Oh, and Ninten… take the kid with you."

"Whaaat? Why?!"

"Wait, am I hired?!" Ness questioned.

"No, but after looking at your stats, I can take a good guess that you've never been in a PSI-Fight before. I want you to go see what a real fight looks like—what we do daily. After that, I'm willing to bet you're gonna go tuck-tail and go home."

"I'm not afraid! I can handle it!" Ness confidently denied.

"Whatever you say. Just get going."

Ninten sighed. "All right, come on. Just don't get in the way when we get there."

As they hurried their way towards the institution, Ninten explained the situation from the clues he got during the conversation. "That was Paula on the phone. She's the current director of the whole PSIence Research Institution. She's gorgeous, smart, and compassionate! Really, she's like the perfect match for me! I think of her as an older sister… sorta. I mean, not really, but… oh forget it."

"Speaking of the institution, I was recently there…" Ness told.

"Dang, really?! Good thing you got out before you got caught up in whatever crazy is going on down there."

"Are burglaries like this normal?" Ness asked. "I don't see why an institution would be a good place for a burglary."

"Hello? It's the biggest research lab in the city! Of course, there's gonna be top notch tech to steal from the place, like the newest PHD equipment and stuff! And if the request is coming from Paula, it's _gotta_ be important!"

"Oh, then we better hurry…!"

"Right! We're almost there!"

 **~W~W~W~**

The front courtyard was spread with pink leather-skinned burglars and policemen squaring off against each other in PSI-Fights. Ness and Ninten could feel the dense tension of psions in the air as they arrived in the area.

The duo ran in and met with a police officer on standby, presumably the squad captain, who gasped shockingly upon recognizing one of them. "It's those bottom-feeders!"

"Hey, don't be mean!" Ninten pointed at him. "We're mercenaries!"

The policeman shook his head in disagreement. "Whatever. You prey off the lowest of the low… you mercenaries are all the same bottom-feeders."

"Don't give us any sass! We're here because we were requested!" Ninten explained.

"Oh, yeah? No one here asked for your help."

"I did."

A blonde woman wearing a thick lab coat to cover all but her pink dress and diamond-patterned pantyhose walked over from the side, spectating the situation. Ness remembered seeing the woman before, only for a moment.

The policeman's face shook up with fear. "What?! Why?! We've got this covered!"

"Woo-hoo! Lookin' good as always, Paula!" Ninten cheered.

"Thanks, Ninten," Paula smiled.

"What about me?"

A spectacled-freckled blond male also appeared from the sidelines, walking in with a boxed object in his hand. Ness also remembered this particular man sometime earlier as well. Someone seemed to be missing...

"Oh. Hey, Jeff," Ninten responded aloofly.

"That's all I get…?" Jeff mumbled.

"Focus, guys," Paula reminded. "Ninten, I need you to help take care of these crooks right away. They're after our newest PHD, which is still in development, and it _was_ top secret…"

"Thankfully, it's safe in my possession!" Jeff pulled out a transparent box containing the mentioned item. A rectangular device lied inside a soft pillow, silent and inactive.

" _I feel like he'll regret having it in his hands…"_ Ness thought.

"Top secret? So cool! But what's so special about it?" Ninten asked.

"Like we both just said, _top secret_ ," Paula restated. "There's no telling what could happen if it were to fall into the wrong hands. So we can't let them take it! With your skills, you should be able to take care of them easily."

"But… that's what we're doing…" the policeman babbled.

"They're stealing our newest PHD. One can't be too careful."

"You heard her! And that's where we come in!" Ninten concurred. "And given the situation here, things don't look too good for the police. I mean… six of you are still in a fight? You should've taken care of them by now!"

"Hmph…!" The squad leader hung his head in shame.

"OK! You just watch, Paula. This one's for you!"

Paula giggled. "Good luck, Ninten."

As one policeman fell over from a battle, the still-standing burglar was met with Ninten who rushed up to him.

"What do you want?" the pig-masked man acknowledged. "You don't look like one of those police goons."

"The name's Ninten! I'm a mercenary!" He smirked proudly while raising his fist.

"One of those mercenary scumbags?" The burglar implored. "So what do you want? You want to fight or something?"

"Bingo!" Ninten chuckled after. "Man, do I feel sorry for you. Your luck just ran out now that I'm here! _Because for the_ _ **love**_ _of Paula, I, Ninten, of the Medica Mercenaries, will be your undoing!_ " He took another stance, preparing to pull out his PHD.

"Wait… _Medica Mercenaries?_ " A quick gasp overtook the masked burglar's face. "Ohhh! You mean those _bottom-feeders_!"

Ninten growled and angrily whipped out his wristband. "WE'RE NOT BOTTOM-FEEDERS!"

The psions around them intensified, and both wrist accessories lit up with strong light. A ring of energy spun around their devices, expanding once and then compressed back into their devices instantly. The two immediately fell into a mindless state as each PHD whisked them into an Animorbis.

"He sure likes you a lot, Paula…" Jeff mumbled.

"He's just very enthusiastic. I may as well play along, or he won't do his best."

The police captain beside them sobbed, still hanging his head. "We're trying our best too, ya know…" he whispered.

"Uh…" a low sound escaped between Ness's lips on accident. He wanted to try and help, but knew there was nothing he could do.

"Hm?" Paula looked over at the source of the voice. "Hey, you work with Ninten, don't you?"

"I… kind of? Sorta… I mean, I am with him…" Ness panicked.

"Well then, get to work! Go fight some burglars. What are we paying you for?" She turned her head to the crime scene. "Take a look. The rest of the police squad are having a tough time. You should be helping them."

"Uh…y-yeah! You're right! I gotta… try to help…" Ness stated this as he walked into the area, but what was he going to do without a PHD? Even if he could jump into a PSI-Fight, how did he plan to fight back, or use his healing PSI on the police force without getting hassled by the opposition? He wanted to look dependable so that he would look good for the job, but he was only getting more nervous as he walked closer to the pairs of fighters with the clients watching him. He looked like a lost child, just eyeing the fights without being able to join in.

In between the space of each pair, he could see a fuzzy transparent sphere buzzing. He recognized this as the Animorbis. Looking just close enough, he was able to observe the psions from each person fighting against each other. He recognized the policeman's psions, and saw that he was winning. It was almost like watching a live video game, and Ness unconsciously smiled.

"Whoa! You're doing great!" Ness exclaimed. He quickly shut his mouth after realizing what he had done.

"What did you—yaaah!"

The policeman who reacted to Ness's voice was caught off guard, and the burglar's psions took advantage of the opening with a strong counter. The policeman was sent flying back and had hit the squad captain, followed by Jeff. Altogether, they tumbled to the ground just as the object in Jeff's grasp flew into the air.

"Crap!" Ness realized what he had just done, and wanted to apologize for screwing up the situation. But his eyes were laid on the PHD that slipped out of its box. Reacting quickly, Ness caught the item and clutched it close to his chest.

"Jeff! Are you okay?" Paula inquired.

"I-I'm fine…" Jeff pulled himself up from the stumble, and then patted the dirt off his coat. Then, he realized something missing from his grasp. "Oh no! The PHD! Where is it?!"

Both of them looked around, and saw that the object was in Ness's hands. Before they could call out to him, they watched the PHD light up in Ness's face.

Just as Ness had caught the PHD, he had pressed a red button the back of the device on accident. Holding it to his face, the device snapped a picture of Ness's face, and then did a scan of his eyes.

" _Eye-scan registration complete,"_ were the words that appeared on the PHD's screen. Then, Ness could feel his psions flowing into the PHD as a test connection, as well as establishing his ownership of the device.

"Oh no…" Ness mumbled. Even though it was on accident, he essentially just stole a PHD into his possession.

"Hey, you!"

The burglar that had just won the fight had come up from behind the teen. He stood up, keeping the device close to him.

"You be a good boy and hand over that PHD, and no one gets hurt, all right?" The pig-masked burglar held out his hand, reeling his fingers a few times. He was panting a bit weakly, weary from the recent fight.

Ness looked back at the scientists who had just witnessed what happened. They shook their heads. Immediately understanding the situation, they urged him on. "Don't give it to him! Just fight with it!"

Even with a PHD, Ness was a bit afraid. It was his first ever fight, and after hearing what little offensive capabilities he had, what could he do against someone like a burglar? Still, he couldn't back down. Giving up the sole targeted object would bring a lot of consequences. But now that he had the option to fight, he remembered who he was fighting for: his family. But most importantly, he realized he could also fight for himself. If he actually managed to win a fight, he could prove to himself that he could fight without any psychokinesis, and trusted in the strength of his psions.

"You're gonna have to fight me to take it!" Ness told.

"Grr… why can't you kids make us adult's lives easy?!" The burglar readied his wristband PHD, and Ness did the same with his own. Both took a stance as their PHDs activated.

The entirety of psions from Ness's mind entered his PHD. As a powerful ring of light expanded and compressed around his PHD, he felt his mind whisked into the Animorbis that soon formed.

 **~W~PSI~W~**

Everyone's first time in the Animorbis always felt strange. Ness felt like he was in another world, while conscious of the one outside of him.

The Animorbis that formed was modeled using a background of the real world's surroundings: the sandy dirt ground, the steel walls of the lab building, had stacks of crates from the single ones that were lying around the area. As Ness looked around, he tried to reel his hands and fingers, getting a grasp on what the imaginary mind world felt like for the first time. He extended out a fist like a punch, and then shook his legs, kicking his feet a few times.

" _This is really cool…_ " he thought. He heard his voice, emanated by his psions, echo around.

"What, so you're a newbie?"

The burglar he was fighting was some meters across the arena from where Ness stood. He cracked his knuckles and wiggled his fingers as if ready to cast a spell. "This is going to be a piece of cake."

The pig-masked burglar raised his finger up, and Ness saw his psions forming at the fingertip. They changed from a white to a yellow color, indicating an incoming psychokinetic electric bolt. He was about to be struck by lightning.

" _PK Thunder, Alpha!_ "

"Uh-oh…!" Ness turned left and jumped out of the way. A string of lightning slithered towards his direction, hitting the wall behind him. Upon impact, the lightning expanded and clapped, leaving a black stain on the wall.

"Make this easy for me kid!" The burglar held his finger up again, preparing another PK Thunder. Ness got back up on his feet and dashed again, dodging the second lightning bolt, followed by a third and fourth.

"Hold still!" Frustrated, the burglar readied a different move. The psions changed from white to blue, which Ness recognized as a water or ice attack. This one was going to be a little more tricky to avoid.

" _PK Freeze, Alpha!"_

A spray of icy wind was expelled from his finger, and while it hit Ness directly and chilled his soul, the main target was the ground around him. The ground was frozen solid, and one move meant slipping on the ice and becoming an easy target. But staying still also left Ness open to the attack, meaning he was stuck.

"Now I've got you!" The enemy readied another bolt of lightning at his fingertip.

Ness kept his cool, trying to think about how to get out of the situation. If he moved his feet well enough, he could slip out without stumbling over, but it would be risky. Then, he saw the sheet of ice around him extend in a line from him to the burglar. That gave him an idea.

" _PK Thunder, Alpha_!"

Right as the bolt was sent at him, Ness jumped forward and crouched, avoiding the lightning in the nick of time while sliding forward on the ice.

"What—?!"

Without giving his opponent time to recover, he charged up psions into his fist, packaging it with pure power. Right as he got close, he sprang up and punched his opponent directly in the face.

"GAAAGH!" The burglar fell over hard onto the ground. Ness looked back, and saw that he wasn't getting up. Soon, the body of his opponent glowed and vanished, signaling the end of the fight.

 **~W~W~W~**

In an instant, Ness's mind returned to his real body, and so did the burglar's… however, he immediately fell backwards and hit the ground.

"Nooo!" he yelled out. "Ugh… no, I can't get up…!"

Ness recognized this phenomenon. It was an aftereffect from losing a PSI-Fight— _with the depletion of psions, the real body becomes immobilized due to fatigue and strain on the mind_. Right now, the burglar was just a sitting duck until his psions recovered. Ness smiled as he cherished his first victory.

"Good work!" Paula cheered upon seeing the result.

Ninten had just finished his fight soon after, causing his opponent to fall over from fatigue as well. After returning to the real world, he had just seen the situation and ran up to Ness. "What the?! How'd you beat him?! I thought you didn't have a PHD?!"

"I, uh…" Ness meekly showed the PHD in his hand, but wasn't able to voice the answer out.

"Ninten, behind you!"

With Paula's warning, they were able to see two burglars come up to them. They had finished their fight with two fallen policemen, and sought to take the device in Ness's hand.

"Aw, jeez!" Ninten pulled out his PHD just as their opponents readied theirs. "Dude, help me out here!"

"R-Right!"

The four PHDs glowed with energy, and an Animorbis formed between them.

 **~W~PSI~W~**

Ness was whisked into the imaginary world again. This time, two opponents stood across from him, and Ninten had appeared right beside him. They looked at each other, and Ninten confirmed that his companion indeed had a PHD, somehow.

"I don't know how you're in here, but since you are, let's take them down!" he pumped his fist.

Ness mimicked the motion. "Got it!"

"Hah! These kids think they can take us!" The burglar across from Ninten scoffed. "Leave this punk to me. You get the other one."

All three of them readied their fingers, charging psions at the tip. Ness was the only one who realized the situation too late, and jumped out of the way before he was late.

"Where're you going?!" Ninten exclaimed.

" _PK Thunder, Alpha!"_

" _PK Thunder, Alpha!"_

"Crap! _PK Beam, Alpha!_ "

The lightning directed at Ness missed and hit the wall, while Ninten's attack collided with his opponent and created an explosion in the middle. The smokescreen of dirt blocked the way between Ninten and the burglar.

"Heh, looks like your friend up and left you!" The other burglar targeted Ninten with a charging PK Thunder.

"Oh crap—!" Ninten tried to ready another attack to deflect it away, but his attempt was too late. He wouldn't be able to charge his psions in time to collide attacks with him or counter back.

"PK Thund—uwah!"

Ness had managed to jump behind the wall on the side, and using the cover to close the distance between them, he ran around and socketed a fist of psions into his enemy's face. He caused his enemy to tumble over, but not completely finished off as he struggled to get up.

"Why you—!" The other burglar had finished charging another thunder spell, and threw it at Ness, but he managed to duck and dodge in time.

" _PK Beam!_ "

Ninten threw his attack at the standing burglar, sending him flying and hitting the wall. Both opponents received significant damage.

"Thanks, Ninten," Ness panted out his pounding heart.

"No problem, but what the heck, man?! You _punched_ him? That's pretty sick!"

"Well, that's the only thing I _can_ do… I can't use psychokinesis."

"Are you serious? Not even one?! And you beat that other guy?!"

"Well, I was told my psions are pretty strong, and I believe that!"

"I can see that, too…" Ninten glanced at the fallen burglar, struggling to stand up after the attack.

"I was also told I do have some kind of PK attack with my psions, but I'm not even sure what it is yet."

"Well, now's your chance to find out!"

"How do I do that?"

"Ask your PHD—it'll scan your psions and tell you what you can do with them!"

"Like we'll let you!" The burglars got back on their feet. Their psions were charging slowly at their fingers.

Ninten pushed his partner behind the wall. "I'll keep them busy, just hurry up!" Back into the fray, he charged psions into both his index fingers, running around the center of the arena.

" _Ask my PHD…_?" Ness repeated the instructions. " _OK. PHD, what can I do with my psions?"_

A voice echoed in Ness's mind. " _Scanning psions… scanning, scanning… scan complete. Following psion forms are available. PSI Life-Up: Recover damage sustained. PSI Healing: Recover status ailments."_

" _Not very helpful so far… I'm barely scraped."_

The PHD continued without acknowledging Ness's comment. " _PSI Shield: Mitigate opposing psions."_

" _Ooh… that'll be helpful in the future."_

" _PK Rockin: Non-elemental energy blast."_

" _PK…Rockin?"_

On cue, the PHD obtained some of Ness's psions and charged the energy into the palm of his hand. The psions were white at first, and continued to glow white, but Ness sensed a great power pulsating at his hands. He smirked and ran back into battle.

"Ugh!' Ninten was almost struck by one of the lightning attacks, and the crash caused him to stumble over. The two closed in on him with charging fingers, ready to strike him together. "Damn it….!"

"Hey!"

Ness's voice echoed loud, catching his opponents' attention.

"Well, well, look who's back!"

"What're you going to do? Run away again?"

"No. This!" Ness raised his hand and shouted out. " _PK Rockin, Alpha!"_

The psions charged in his hand unleashed into a vast spray of piercing light all at once. The ray of energy scathed the two burglars all over, causing them to scream in pain.

"Gaaah!"

"Aaugh!"

The two were knocked back by the strong force of Ness's psions, and eventually vanished in midair. They had been taken down completely in one shot.

"Whoa…!" Ninten gasped. It was the last thought said in the Animorbis.

 **~W~W~W~**

Back in the real world, the two burglars fell over, groaning in pain. "Oogh…"

Ninten turned to Ness and put his hands towards his mouth, failing to cover his agape astonishment. "Dude, that was amazing!"

"Yeah, it was…!" Ness spoke as if he surprised his own self.

The policemen around them had finally defeated their own opponents, kneeling down in weariness after their fights. Ninten looked all around and jumped up in the air, cheering.

"All right! We got all of them!"

 **~W~W~W~**

The burglars were detained and put into an escort vehicle. They all were driven to the police station immediately.

The local scientists and some policemen aided in the clean up of destroyed materials and ensuring that everything stolen was recovered safely. Ness and Ninten were still in the area, making sure that the area was completely free of crime.

As they loomed around, eventually, a lady of the police squad approached the two mercenaries. Donning beautiful purple hair over a commanding, personalized police uniform, she cleared her throat as she closed in.

"Ahem," she began. "Are you both OK?"

Ninten jumped when he heard the familiar sounding voice. "Gah! Meryl! When did you get here?!"

"Just now. How are you feeling? You didn't hit your head or anything this time, did you?"

"No, I'm fine! Actually, I had my buddy help out this time. Get this, this guy is really strong!"

Meryl turned to the capped boy, impressed. "Oh, really? Well, thank you very much for keeping Ninten safe."

"What, is Ninten always hurting himself at work?"

"He does, in fact. He somehow manages to get himself hurt every time he's out on mercenary business."

"Hey, don't say that like I end up hurt every job I take…"

"But that's what happened! You went to the hospital more than 20 times in a month because you kept getting beat!"

"Gah… don't remind me!"

Meryl shook her head. "I recommended that he join the police squad, but he just keeps saying no…"

"Aw, Meryl! Don't start on that again! I wouldn't be caught dead in one those tacky uniforms! Besides, you need a _A-Rank License_ , and I don't like studying nor do I have the money to even take the _C-Rank test_!"

"Once a simpleton, always a simpleton."

Another male in a personalized uniform approached the group. He had messy brown hair, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Shut up, Travis!" Ninten exclaimed.

Travis ignored Ninten's rude remark and saluted to his co-worker. "Captain Meryl, all of the suspects have been sent to headquarters. As for the lab, no major damages have been sustained."

"Good work," Meryl nodded.

Travis shook his head. "I disagree. I can't believe we needed help from the mercenaries. I'm gonna make sure all these slackers hit the training room hard!"

"Don't be too hard on them…" Meryl pleaded delicately.

"Fine. Anyways, we should be getting back to the station. I'll wait for you at the gate."

Travis turned and marched away. Meryl bowed quickly to the two. "I've got to go, I'm working late, apparently. Both of you take care!" She left the area soon after.

"Who was that?" Ness questioned.

"Meryl, and her partner Travis," Ninten answered. "We're childhood friends. Meryl's like a big sister to me. And Travis... I don't like him."

"Why's that?"

"We used to compete in a lot of things when we were younger. I guess you can say we're rivals. But now he's in the police squad, and there's no competing with that…"

"Ninten, are you hurt?"

Paula and Jeff walked up to the duo next, inquiring on their statuses. Ninten shook his head and smiled. "I'm a-OK! Never better!"

"Good… by the way, Ninten, who is your friend here?" Paula questioned. "I've never seen him with you before. Is he new to your group?"

"Ummm… it's a bit complicated…" Ninten began.

"Whatever it is, I saw your fights," Paula stated. "Your psions are incredibly potent… you defeated those burglars with just a few hits. Well, they may have been weakened by the police officers, but still… you seem like you can be quite the psychic."

"Oh, I totally agree! You're so observant, Paula!" Ninten nodded.

"That PK of yours was intriguing, too…" Jeff stated. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It's not your everyday kind of PK," Paula added." You're quite the special person."

"I know, right?!" Ninten agreed. " _Jeez, he's stealing my spotlight…"_

"You mean _PK Rockin_?" Ness confirmed. "Well, it surprised me too. That was my first time using it."

" _Really_?" Paula smirked. "Say, I've got an idea. Why don't you keep that PHD?"

"Wait, what even is that PHD?" Ninten stared at the object in Ness's hand. "It looks more like a smartphone than the usual kind of PHD!"

"That's because it's _both_ a smartphone and a PHD," Paula stated. "It's our newest invention for convenience."

"No way! That's so awesome! A phone _and_ a PHD in one!"

"Is it even OK for me to have?" Ness asked. "It seems really valuable…"

"There isn't much of a choice, since the eye-scanner already identified you as the owner," Jeff specified. "Only you can use it right now, and you have to wait a month before a PHD allows you to unregister. We _were_ gonna have it go on a test run soon anyways, and you can do that for us by using it as normal."

"Besides that, I'm interested in your abilities," Paula added. "Your psions adapted to the PHD rather quickly, and I'd like more data on how your psions develop with it over time. I especially want to see how strong that PK of yours can grow."

"Wait, hold on—" Ninten interrupted. "This guy's not really… 'with' us. He only just came by today looking for work. Teds doesn't even want to hire him."

"Oh, really? I'll recommend Teddy to hire him myself, then. I'd say you found a real gem for your team."

"Wow! A recommendation from _Paula?_ I can't wait to see the look on his face! Well, if that's what you want, who am I to argue?"

"Great! Ah, by the way, what _is_ your name?" Paula looked at the questionable boy.

Ninten's face widened. "Ooh, another great question… _that I completely forgot to ask you_!" he lowered his voice at the last sentence.

Ness chuckled dumbfoundedly. "It's Ness."

"Ness, huh? I'm Paula—as you may know, I'm the director of the lab here. This is my assistant, Jeff. It's nice to meet you."

"Same here," Ness nodded, grinning.

Paula smiled back. "Don't you worry, Ness. I'll talk to Teddy and make sure he hires you."

"Ain't that great, Ness?" Ninten agreed, rolling his tongue over the name for the first time. "By the way, Paula… you wanna go grab some dinner?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ninten. I've got too much to do. The lab's a whole mess thanks to those burglars. Besides, your work is done here... shouldn't you be getting back to your office?"

Ninten crossed his arms, slightly disappointed. "Yeah… I guess we should."

"Right then. See you later, Ninten. And Ness, please take good care of that PHD."

Paula turned away and walked away into the lab building, with Jeff following behind.

Ninten giggled giddily as he turned to Ness. "Hehe! She knows I'm a busy guy! She's got a whole lotta class… Paula's so awesome! Mature women sure are something, huh…"

"Right…" Ness mumbled.

"Okay! We should get going before the sun sets."

Ness nodded in agreement. "Right."

 **~W~W~W~**

Paula hurried to her office door, unlocking the room with her card key. She hurried inside.

"Are you still here?" she called out.

A blond boy poked his head from behind the bed in the bedroom. He waved his hand for the scientist to see.

"Oh, thank goodness," Paula sighed. "It's all right, you can come out. The situation's calmed down. It's safe."

"O-Okay…" he shuffled out of the room slowly, clutching his stomach with both arms.

Paula crossed her arms. "I can see you're still stressed out. Why don't we have you go home for today? You can come back for your tests tomorrow—"

"No!" The boy shook his head. "I only trust you or Jeff... I don't want another scientist running tests on me."

Paula huffed lightly. "Right, I'm sorry. Then, if you don't mind, let's go into one of the exam rooms."

He nodded promisingly. "I'll be fine."

 **~W~W~W~**

Back at the Medica Mercenaries office, Ninten and Ness were standing in front of Teddy's desk. The former continued to praise his partner from witnessing his actions first hand.

"Really, Teds! It's like I said! This guy's got real talent!" Ninten encouraged.

Teddy tilted his head. "Listen, I don't know what exactly happened down there, but I just got a call from Paula telling me to hire him." He looked firmly at Ness. "Just so you know—we're hiring you because you got a PHD from her! Not because you're some hotshot that just waltzed in here!"

"Sounds good to me," Ness nodded.

"Woo-hoo! It's settled then!" Ninten cheered.

Teddy slammed the table in front of the two. "BUT DON'T FORGET THE PAY STINKS!"

Ness and Ninten hung their heads simultaneously.

"Well, at least you got _a_ job," Ninten told. "Since the day's almost done, it looks like you can just go home. And because tomorrow's a day off from school, just come straight to work in the morning."

"OK," Ness responded. "Say, do you go to school too? I haven't seen you in any of my classes…"

"Huh? Oh, no… I dropped out last year." Ninten shrugged. "Like I said, I hate studying."

"Seventeen and a dropout," Teddy stated. "Can't get any more disappointing than that."

"Hey, at least I have no one nagging me about it!" Ninten retorted. "I like my life just the way it is! Anyways… I'm gonna head home now. You should too."

Ness nodded. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, then!"

He left the building and walked along the path to his home. He pulled out his PHD and looked at the time. Then, he remembered that it was also a smartphone—he should've gotten phone numbers for his work and his new partner. Well, that was a trivial matter that could be solved sometime tomorrow. For now, he couldn't wait to see the face on his sister when he tells her about his new job and his new gadget.

* * *

 **A/N:** Paula and Jeff are meant to be older in this story. Consider them at least +4-5 years older than Ness. For clarification, Ninten is also older than Ness by one year.


	3. New Techniques

Chapter 3: New Techniques

…

…

…

" **WAKE UUUP!"**

" _Aahh!"_

Ness wakes up with a cold sweat racing down his spine, again.

"Tracy!" he groaned at his sister.

"Well I had to, or else you'd be late for work!" Tracy pointed at the clock hanging above the bed. 7:44 A.M. "You don't want to get fired on the first day of work, do you?"

He actually didn't need to be at work for another 16 minutes, which was doable with a second to spare if he tried now. Ness sighed deeply as he let his sister be right for now, as he was still tired and frustrated to protest.

The morning began as usual. Ness changed into a new set of clothes, donned his favorite hat, and then took another breakfast pill to keep himself from going hungry. Once he was ready, he met Tracy, Jackie, and Tessie beside the complex entrance.

"There's our hardworking young man!" Jackie greeted delightedly. "We're wishing you lots of luck at your new job today."

"I'll do my best!" Ness assured them.

"Tracy was just telling us a little bit about your new job. She said you're a mercenary now? What's that like?"

Ness immediately remembered all the bad things he heard about mercenaries, but he considered his words carefully so that he wouldn't cause them concern. "It's a little complicated to explain everything, but basically, _mercenaries help maintain peace between psychics_. We also _hunt down psychic criminals who abuse their powers_ , kind of like bounty hunters."

"…But isn't that what the police is for?" Jackie stared dumbfounded.

"Mercenaries mainly take requests that the police consider too small to be bothered with. Sometimes the police may be occupied with bigger things, so we take the smaller jobs when they can't get to them."

"Well, I guess as long as you're making money out of it, that's all that matters!" Jackie settled.

"I'm sure your father would be proud of you if he were here now," Tessie added. "To know that you're using your powers for the greater good."

"I'd help fight crime too if I had my own PHD," Tracy pouted. "But since I don't, you better work hard!"

"I will." Tracy hugged his brother before sending him off. "And you take it easy at your job, okay?"

"Psh, it's delivering newspapers. Nothing hard about it." Tracy scoffed as she let go.

Jackie gasped after looking at his watch. "Oh, look at the time! Both of you should get going, quick!"

"Right, see ya!" Ness rushed out towards the exit and waved at them, followed by Tracy who went in a different direction.

 **~W~W~W~**

Ninten was found taking a nap on the lounge chairs as Ness walked into the workplace. He woke up when he heard his footsteps.

"Good morning," Ness greeted.

"Hey! Good to see you!" Ninten pepped himself wide-awake immediately.

"Ah, you're here," Teddy spoke next, welcoming him back.

Ness approached the desk. "So, what's the agenda today?"

"Job training," Teddy answered. "Since you're completely new to PSI-Fights, you need to get in shape for everything we do in the future. But as you can see here, we're just a small office with nothing special without any training equipment. We don't even have the manpower to train you long enough, so I need you to get up to speed quickly."

"You can count on me," Ness assured. "I'll work extra hard."

"Good, I like that."

Ninten walked up to the desk nonchalantly. "Say, Teds. Where's Lucas? I mean, the new guy gets here right on time and he's nowhere to be seen!"

"Lucas is out on duty right now. He's not a slacker like you, Ninten."

Ninten's mouth dropped. "On duty? This early?! Seriously—?!"

"You could've gone with him, but I called you this morning and you didn't answer."

"Huh, really? That's odd…" Ninten acted innocently. " _He oughta know I never turn on my cellphone before noon unless I'm expecting a girl…"_

"Well, that's why Lucas went alone. He's more than capable, anyways."

"Who's Lucas?" Ness asked.

"Another one of our happy helpers here," Ninten answered.

"He's the local ace of Medica Mercenaries," Teddy continued. "Good kid. Hard worker and a great psychic, too."

"Just remember, he's not as great as me!" Ninten boasted.

"Pah-hah!" Teddy snorted and laughed. "Yeah right, that's a good one."

Ninten squinted at Teddy, saddened.

"I'd like to meet him sometime," Ness remarked.

Teddy nodded in agreement. "I bet he'd want to meet you too, since it was only him and Ninten until you came along. But that can wait another time. Like I was saying before, we need to get you ready for action at a moment's notice. Ninten, since you're here, I need you to take Ness to the _Training Gym_ and do some warm-ups there. Make sure he gets good experience."

"Training time, huh? Gotcha."

"And keep your cellphone on."

Ninten waved his hand uncaringly. "Yeah, yeah. I hear you."

"Oh! Speaking of phones…" Ness began. "I don't have everyone's numbers here on my cellphone."

"Oh, right! Teds, we should give him our numbers."

"Good thinking. I can call you to do a job in case _someone_ doesn't pick up," he said as he glared at Ninten. "Hand it over."

Ness pulled out his PHD and handed it to Teddy. After he complimented how high-tech it was once holding it in his hand, they dialed each other's numbers to finally establish and store the contact information. Ninten handed his number over as well afterwards.

"Okay, I got everyone!" Ness looked at the contact names stored in his cellphone-PHD, still amazed at the technology in his hand. Though he only had two names for the time being, he was sure he would build it up more later when there was time. "Oh, but I'm missing our other co-worker, Lucas…"

"You'll have to ask him personally," Teddy told. "I'm not gonna hand it over so you can call him out of the blue without first meeting him."

"Gotcha."

"All done?" Ninten asked, and saw Ness nod. "Then let's go!"

 **~W~W~W~**

The _Training Gym_ was the only place in the city with public access to training equipment. While typical workout machines were available for those that sought to enhance their physical bodies, the government also funded certain equipment to train psychics and had them installed within the gym. All a person needed was a membership and a PHD.

Ness and Ninten arrived at the gym. The former gazed in awe at how fancy the interior was decorated.

"I've never been here before…" Ness mentioned to his companion. "But don't we need a membership?"

"Teds has us covered," Ninten smirked. "Medica Mercenaries has a group membership here, so we can train whenever we want. Just mention your name and the company, and they'll look you up. Well now that you're here, let's train!"

"Right! What do we do first?"

"Well, how about a sparring round with me?" Ninten told. "Let's see how powerful your psions really are."

"All right, but I don't think I can hold back my own strength."

"I don't expect ya' to! We're training you, after all. Now, follow me."

Ninten led them to a large arena in the center of the gym. As the elevated surface stretched octagonally, there were multiple tables placed along on the edge at each point. A Half of the tables were empty, while the others had an automated robot standing on one side of the table. The two walked over to the closest available table.

As Ness got closed, he noticed that table looked more like a miniature wrestling arena. The base was fancy metallic like everything else in the world, and was roped off by self-levitating plasma. This was his first time seeing such a strange apparatus.

"This is a _Animorbis Stand_ ," Ninten explained. "You've heard of these before?"

Ness shook my head. "This is my first hearing about it. What does it do?"

" _An Animorbis Stand projects an Animorbis_. Normally without a stand, _the Animorbis that is created is based on the surroundings, and sometimes has a touch of personality by one or both psychics fighting_. With a stand, you can actually design an Animorbis environment however you want, so it's good for training in specific settings."

"That's pretty cool," Ness commented, touching the table. The stand had then beamed a digital screen on both sides of the table, showing something akin to a stage selection menu in video games he's played before.

"We can't design anything ourselves since these belong to the gym, but they have some pretty good presets based on different areas in the city," Ninten informed. "You can pick whichever one you want this time."

"OK… how about this one?" Ness tapped a screen that looked the most appealing to him.

On Ninten's side, he saw the selected environment. It was based on _Polestar Park_ , the largest park placed in the center of the city. "Ooh, not bad. This is a nice-looking place."

"So we just ready our PHDs and we go into this place?"

"Right! But before that… _did you turn on the safety switch on your PHD_?"

"Safety switch?" Ness repeated.

"Well, not exactly sure if your phone-PHD has one… but all PHDs should have a yellow button on them. If you press it twice fast, it'll turn the _safety mechanism_ on or off."

Ness pulled out his PHD and located the specified yellow button along the top outer edge. He pressed it twice as instructed, and then the screen asked for confirmation to turn the safety on. Glancing over at Ninten, it seemed he did the same thing, although he must have had a confirmation asked within his head.

"What does the safety do?" Ness inquired as he hit yes.

"Don't they teach you about everything in school?" Ninten rolled his eyes.

"Hey, remember this is the first time I'm actually dealing with this stuff. Re-enlighten me."

"I'm just teasing, dude," Ninten stuck his tongue out. "The safety mechanism, when turned on, _reduces the impact of your psions after a PSI-Fight._ You remember the other day when the burglars keeled over after you beat them?"

"Yeah, that's because of the mental strain that hits you after you lose a PSI-Fight."

"That's because the safety mechanism was turned off. Now that it's on, we won't get big headaches that make us drop, so we can keep training if we want."

"All right, cool."

"You normally don't know if someone turned a safety switch on or off, so it's more of a courtesy thing when it comes to picking your fights. Just remember to turn it back off when we have work dealing with criminals."

"Got'cha. Can we fight now?"

Ninten chuckled. "OK. Let's get in!"

The two readied their PHDs, and light engulfed their devices. Shortly after, the Animorbis Stand projected a sphere with the selected environment, and both entered the imaginary world.

 **~W~PSI~W~**

The originally created Animorbis was just like any other imaginary world, except the stage was decorated with more greenery, bushes, and flowers, and the obstacles and walls were based off of stone, black steel, and other material normally seen at Polestar Park. An unbreakable archway tiled with stained glass was placed in the middle for an extra attractive touch.

Ness and Ninten entered the world on opposite sides of the archway. As soon as they set foot and saw each other, the battle had begun.

Ninten charged psions to his fingertips, causing Ness to run behind the nearest wall. He was able to peek his head out, but a beam of energy barely scratched his head just as he stepped back.

"Hide all you want, but you're done as soon as there's nothing between us!" Ninten warned. He then ran forward, holding his fingertips behind him.

"Crap," Ness grunted. He ran left and towards a large hedge, slipping behind it and tried to peek through the leaves. Ninten had just turned the corner and failed to see him, but he looked left and right to guess where he had went.

" _What do I do…?"_ Ness asked himself. He looked down at his fist, barely sparkling with psions so that he could ready a close-ranged attack, but the problem was approaching Ninten without getting hit by his beam first. His healing PSI was useless at the moment, and though he could charge his special _PK Rockin_ , it wouldn't do good to miss or hit a wall that Ninten could duck behind. His signature attack also seemed to take longer to charge than Ninten's _PK Beam_ , so he wouldn't be able to use it to deflect a second PK Beam if Ninten chose to counterattack right after.

He remembered he had the _PSI Shield_ move. He spared just enough psions to form it, and raised it out in front of his palm. A blue wall as tall as him formed, but he felt something strange… like the shield looked elastic. While the shield was still up, he concentrated the psions into a specific place. As he had commanded, the blue shield shrunk in size, focusing on the size of his head. He noticed that the shield, while smaller in size, had become thicker and more durable. It seemed that on command, _PSI Shield_ could be used to block a strong concentrated attack, or sacrifice shield strength to provide a wider area of cover. This gave Ness an idea. With one hand, he charged _PSI Shield_ again.

Ninten went in the other direction upon peeking behind the wall Ness ran to before, but after seeing his opponent wasn't plainly visible, he ran back to the path Ness had chosen. Turning the corner, he found Ness sitting and waiting for him.

"Aha!" On sight, Ninten pulled out his hand and pointed it at him. For a moment, he paused, because Ness was charging straight at him, and questioned his methods. His enemy was only getting bigger in size and easier to target, but Ninten fired as soon as he could.

" _PK Beam, Alpha!_ "

A single ray of energy was sent flying at Ness's face, but he still ran forward. Reacting quickly, he extended his left hand forward.

" _Shield!"_

On Ness's command, the blue barrier quickly formed in the size of a small diamond, appearing in front of his face as directed. The beam hit the barrier at the last half second, and the shield successfully blocked the beam. The ray dissipated as the durable shield stood strong.

"No way—!" Ninten gasped. He had kept the beam fired for as long as he stood there watching his attack get blocked, but that was a big mistake. Ness was still running at him with his left hand occupied… and with his right hand charged with psions, he struck a blow to Ninten's left torso, knocking him to the side.

"Daagh!" Ninten was sent rolling on the ground, trying to drag his feet and stop himself from hitting the edge of the arena. Successful, he recovered as fast as he could and struggled to stand, looking at Ness.

"How'd you do that?!" Ninten exclaimed. "You used a special move and attacked at the same time! I thought you can only use one PK or support PSI at a time?!"

Ness smiled as he was happy with the result. "That's true, but that's exactly what I did. Only _one_ support PSI."

Ninten realized what he meant, remembering the fist of psions that struck him. It was basic knowledge to all aspiring psychic fighters that only one kind of PK or support PSI could be formed at a time, as that's what any PHD could only handle, whether you focused the move in one hand or both. Ness had indeed charged PSI Shield with one hand, but left the other available merely for psions to charge in a potent free form.

Today's psychics revolved to stick with distance battles due to the natural vectors of standard PK, and no one would dare try using any kind of attack close range without risking getting hurt first. Ness was the first person that Ninten ever met to fight different from everyone else, using his smarts and agility. Close-combat did have its big risks, but had big rewards. Ninten realized that now after examining the damage he had taken.

Ninten let out a quick chuckle. "You're really something, Ness. But I'm not done yet!" Bringing both of his arms outward, he charged psions at his fingertips on both hands. Ness charged forward again, preparing another PSI Shield.

Ninten sent the first beam in Ness's direction, aimed at his torso. Ness's next shield focused around the general area of the attack, but then came the second beam sent a bit higher. Ness tried to split the shield and widen its area of effect, but as the durability of the first targeted area weakened, the shield was pierced through and instantly broke, and he took both hits. Ness was sent flying back with damage, hitting the ground with his back. The leftover rays persisted and flew over him, hitting the stone wall behind him and exploded. Ness got up as quickly as he could to prep for a defense.

"Should've seen that coming," Ness grumbled, panting out exhaustion from the hit.

"Don't underestimate your enemy's psion strength, even if they split it into two attacks," Ninten warned. He readied two sets of beams again, crossing his arms and walked forward.

"Got'cha," Ness noted. He looked left and hid behind a different stone wall. He stood right at the edge, trying to think quickly about his next plan.

"What're you going to do now, Ness?" Ninten called out. "Don't think I'll let you try to block my attack again."

Ness was about to poke his head out and peek just to see how far Ninten was from him, but in the corner of his eye, he spotted the wall that Ninten's previous attack had hit. He had now noticed it was a stone wall rather than steel—which meant it was less sturdy and more susceptible to breaking. Another idea popped in his head as he charged one more potent fist.

While he still could, Ness ran down the path, turning left and hiding behind the following stone wall. He poked half of his body out on purpose, waiting for Ninten to spot him. When he did, a PK Beam was sent flying at him, but Ness retracted back, causing the attack to only shoot through the opening. He looked back again and saw Ninten running forward with one beam charged behind him.

Ness calmed his breathing and listened carefully to Ninten's running footsteps. When he heard the sounds grow at their loudest, he grunted loudly and punched the stone wall with all his might. A giant hole was broken and the stone scattered into pieces, blasting Ninten with rubble.

"Whaa—?!" Ninten covered his entire face as he felt stone pelting him and dust trickling his nose and lips. Canceling his PK Beam, he waved the smoke with his now free arm as best as he could, fanning the way to get his sight back. When it was finally clear, he saw Ness on the other side of the hole, with his hands extended forward and psions charged at the palm. He immediately knew it was over.

" _PK Rockin!"_

The blast of light sprayed forward and quickly hit Ninten, causing his psion body to disintegrate as he was hit with Ness's strongest attack. The fight was over.

 **~W~W~W~**

As soon as they snapped back to reality, Ninten put a hand to his forehead. "Ugh… even with the safety on, it still kind of hurts."

"Are you okay? Maybe my psions are _too_ strong…"

"I'm fine, no worries!" Ninten only opened on eye, crunching the other. "I just need to rest a little."

"I'll take a break too, then."

"No, we're here to train you. You can keep fighting. Instead of fighting me, go try out the CPUs on the other tables here. They're programmed well enough to help train you."

Ninten shuffled himself towards the stairs while holding his head, but dropped it and turned around. "By the way, don't go thinking you're better than me! I was going easy on you, after all."

Ness smiled weakly and nodded at him, being polite to not hurt his friend's pride. He looked to the other half of Animorbis Stands where robots were standing by at each table. He walked to the other side, but stopped when he heard a voice call to him.

"Hey, wait."

Ness looked to the direction of the voice. A hot-pink haired woman with a modest blue sweater was smirking at him.

"Me?" Ness confirmed.

"Yup, you. I saw your fight with your friend just now. You're an interesting guy."

"Oh… thanks! People have been saying that about me recently…"

"Well, no one fights in close quarters these days. You're the first one I've seen in a very long time. You have great battle instincts, too."

"I just tried whatever came to me," Ness admitted. "I'm actually new to the whole PSI-Fighting world… that's why I'm here training."

The woman snickered. "Is that so? You just keep getting better and better." She walked around and up the stairs, meeting Ness on the same level. She tilted her head towards nearest open Animorbis Stand. "Tell you what. Let me teach you some tricks I bet you don't know. I'm sure it'll really help you."

"Really? That'd be great! But… you don't mind?"

"Of course not! It'd be a waste to let a diamond in the rough like you take a really bad fall later. The lesson's free of charge; I'm just having some fun."

"Wow, thank you!"

The woman waved her hand. "Don't mention it. Now, come on."

Ness walked back to the Animorbis Stand he just used, standing on the other side of it. The woman selected the stage and then pulled out her PHD, pressing the yellow button on her bracelet twice.

"This place will give us plenty of room to run around in," she said, mentioning the Animorbis stage. "It'll be best for us."

"Got it." Ness made sure his PHD had the safety on too as a precaution, and then readied himself. "By the way… I don't know your name. I'm Ness, and you?"

The woman smiled as she raised her PHD. "Call me Kumatora. Nice to meet ya'."

 **~W~PSI~W~**

The battlefield they stepped in was a simple flatland shy of walls. Only four tower obstacles were in each corner of the arena, leaving the perpendicular wide open.

Ness greeted Kumatora just a little more than a meter across from him. She smirked as she snapped her fingers, flickering some psions as if to make sure they were there. She nodded pleasingly at the result.

"So what're we doing?" Ness asked.

Kumatora put her hands into the pockets of her top. "Well, let me ask you something first. What do you know about infusing psions into your fist?"

Ness tried to list the points that came to mind first. "Uhh…they're powerful attacks if they land… they charge up quicker than a PK attack…they only glow white, I guess? What else…"

"You ever thought that putting psions on your fist is an _enhancement_ , and not an actual attack?" Kumatora mentioned.

"An… enhancement?"

Kumatora pulled out one hand and clenched a fist, charging a thin layer of psions around it. "Make a PSI Shield for me—one as big as you."

"OK." Ness focused energy to his hand as instructed. " _Shield_." With one word, a large blue shield stood as tall as his height.

Kumatora casually walked over and reeled her arm back. Without using too much force, she punched forward. The shield successfully blocked her attack, stopping the fist at the barrier surface. Ness silently noticed how Kumatora did not use very many psions in her attack, so she held back on purpose.

"Good. Now, I'm going to punch again, but _without any psions_."

"Uh… OK."

Kumatora took her other fist, freeing all mind energy off it and sent it forward. This time, her hand had gone through the shield, causing Ness to flinch and lean his head back. When Ness opened his eyes, he saw that the shield was encircling her arm, and her fist was right in front of his face.

"You see that?" Kumatora retracted her arm and stepped back. "PSI Shield blocked my psion fist because it had psions. It couldn't stop just my bare hand though, because it lacked enough psions to block it."

"That makes sense to me," Ness nodded in understanding as he diminished his shield. "But what's the point?"

" _When you're infusing freeform psions on your body, you're enhancing the body part that you're using in some way_. If you're clenching a fist, it powers up your strength. If you're focusing them around your body, you're creating a semi-shield, which can reduce the impact and friction when you're tumbling on the ground after a taking big hit. Your psion body is only just a body until you focus more psions on it somewhere, like my bare hand passing through your shield just as you saw. How you win PSI-Fights depends on how you use your psions... or _not_ use them."

"That's… I never realized that. It sounds like such a simple concept, too."

Kumatora snickered lightly. "So, have you ever tried putting psions on anywhere else besides your hands?"

Ness shook his head. "No, actually…"

A smirk painted on her face. "Watch this, then."

She turned to the side, and then took the position to that of a running start. Ness then watched a noticeable amount of psions coat her legs and feet. With one more second, Kumatora dashed out at incredible speed, and ran around the arena faster than Ness expected the average psion body to. After Kumatora made one roundtrip, she stopped at the edge, and then the psions around her legs transferred to her feet, giving them an extra kick. She squatted down and leapt high into the air, landing close to Ness.

"Whoa… that was amazing!" Ness gasped.

"Isn't it? You can focus freeform psions anywhere on your body. If you don't want to use PK, or got the psions to spare, you can close the gap between you and your opponent easily just by using your leg muscles and your feet."

"I never thought of using them like that…"

"Now you know! It's really handy if you're going to stick to close quarters combat. You can run faster at your opponent if you need to, or leap straight at them with your feet and do a powerful kick. You could even jump over a wall for a surprise attack! It's all up to you on how you use your psions, though."

"Hmm…" Ness tried the method out for himself. He focused psions at his legs and feet, and then charged some in one of his hands. He dashed around the room, carrying a charged fist in his hand so that he could get a feel for this new attacking approach. He let out a cheer as he felt the air hit his body stronger than running without any psions. When he familiarized himself with the feeling well enough, he ran back towards the center.

"Of course, _putting psions in multiple different places on your body weakens their effects_ , so charge them wisely," Kumatora added. "Don't forget it's still using your psion depot. You don't want to run out faster than your enemy."

Ness nodded as he retracted his psions. "This is going to help a lot. Thanks, Kumatora."

"No sweat! Make sure you win lots of fights with this, got it?"

Ness nodded with eager.

Kumatora crossed her arms and sighed. "You'd think a lot more people would know about this… but nowadays people just prefer to stand still and watch fire and lightning fly around because they think it's 'cool'. That said… maybe keep these moves a secret unless you need them? It may not be favorable if everyone starts fighting like you. Up to you, of course."

"Right. I'll try to use them sparingly."

"Good. Well, that's all I wanted to show you. Let's get out of here."

 **~W~W~W~**

The PSI-Fight ended prematurely with approval from both parties. Ness and Kumatora returned to the real world without any repercussions.

Kumatora peeked over at the clock hanging behind Ness. "Oh! I should probably get going. I'll catch ya' another time."

"OK! Thanks again, Kumatora."

She gave him a thumb up and smirked. "Use what you learned well, got it? Win lots of fights! Get stronger!" Afterwards, she hurried down the steps and left the gym.

Ness twisted his hands and feet, getting a feel for them. " _I can't wait to tell Ninten what I learned. I wonder how he's doing? Maybe I'll check on him_."

Right before Ness stepped off the arena, his PHD rang. "Oh, my phone! It's either Teddy or Ninten…" he answered the call and placed the phone to his ear. Before he could speak, the other party shouted first.

"NESS—!"

" _It's Teddy."_

"—Where's Ninten?! That idiot turned off his cell phone again! Tell him to call me back right now! Got it?!"

The call immediately ended after. He sighed and stepped off the arena after spotting Ninten at the front reception desk. He walked over to see that he was flirting with the attractive receptionist.

"Come ooon, what's your phone number?" Ninten pleaded in a singing manner.

"Aw, you want my number?" The girl waved a small piece of paper in the air close to her side.

"Aww, don't fool with me! How about a date then? I'll take ya' somewhere that's nice and romantic!"

"Uh, Ninten…" He turned around with a grouchy expression on his face after seeing Ness. "Teddy called me and wants you to call him back."

"What… why not just tell you what he needs? I was totally gonna get this girl's number too." Ninten pulled out his phone, powered it on, and dialed the chief's number. "Ninten here. What's up? I'm a little busy right now—"

" **YOU ******** ********* I TOLD YOU TO ******** TURN ON YOUR ******* PHONE**! ********* ****!** Get to Polestar Park right now, two idiot boys are having a fight over a girl. Go calm their asses down!"

"Did you have to use language like that, Teds?" Ninten faked sobbed. "Don't worry, I got it…" He quickly ended the call, glancing at both Ness and the desk girl. It was safe to assume they knew from Teddy's loud voice.

"You gotta go? What a shame… still, good luck with work, Ninten."

"Aw, thanks!" he quickly perked up. Hey, let's go on a date next time, huh?"

"Come back soon and I'll _consider_ it," she winked.

"Woo-hoo! You better believe I'll be back! Now I'm pumped up!" Ninten turned back to Ness.

"I heard," he stated. " _Polestar Park_?"

"That's right—let's go!"


	4. Lack of a Rank

Chapter 4: Lack of a Rank

Polestar Park, as its name implies, was located in the center of the city and was quite some ways from the gym. Nevertheless, Ninten and Ness hurried to the location while the situation still lasted.

The park was decorated with typical artificial greenery, steel benches, and a trail that circled around the entire area. In the center of the park was a two-layer fountain with a stained-glass bedding, which could create colorful water when the sun shined at the exact angle. Standing right before the fountain were two young boys engaged in a PSI-Fight, both with simple color schemes on their hair and clothes. A blonde girl wavered in between them, unsure how to handle the situation.

Ness and Ninten assumed at first glance that the three were the cause of the disturbance and approached the unoccupied girl. She turned around after hearing their footsteps.

"Oh! Are you mercenaries?" she asked.

"We are," Ness answered.

"Medica Mercenaries, at your service!" Ninten added. "I believe you called for us?"

The blonde clutching her hands together. "Oh, my saviors!" she cried like a damsel in distress. "I'm Nana, and I certainly did call for your help."

"So… what happened here?" Ninten inquired.

"You see… these silly fruit boys started fighting over me…" she fidgeted her body unnecessarily, "because I'm just _sooo_ cute! Well, I mean, I guess I _did_ tell them I would go out with them… _on the same day… and time…_ but I didn't know which one to cancel, so I'd thought I'd just come out and see what would happen! And while I was waiting, they showed up and saw each other, and started fighting over me."

Ninten sighed, keeping a thought to himself. " _What did you expect to happen_?"

"So anyway, I like, just freaked out and panic, then I remembered to call the police so they could maybe calm them down, but they said they didn't have enough men…"

Ninten stared disappointingly. " _I think you have more than enough men already."_

"—But I'm not worried at all now that you're here! I know you can calm these boys down for me! And so I'm going to go home, OK? I'll leave the rest up to you." She bowed after her last statement and then quickly skipped off.

"What the—wait!" But she was too far already, and exited the park vicinity. "She actually left… she's not going to even say anything to her dates?"

"Doesn't she have to pay us for this?"

"Teddy will send her the bill later after we finish up here. So, let's get this over with."

They turned to the two angry-faced boys, locked in a stance as their PHDs glowed in activation. Ness noticed how each of them resembled a fruit as Nana described, based on their appearance. The left boy wore red like an apple, and the right boy wore orange… like an orange.

Ninten snickered. "Heh, look at these poor guys. They're so mad at each other that they haven't even noticed she dumped both of them."

"What do we do? Wait until they finish?"

"We could, or just jump in their Animorbis and chill them both out right now. Let's keep our safety on, too. I'd hate to make them faint in the park."

"OK. Ready when you are."

Ninten nodded. Then, together, they pulled out their PHDs and entered the imaginary world.

 **~W~PSI~W~**

Landing in a strikingly similar Polestar Park-themed environment, the mercenaries spawned some meters before the angry culprits. They were so invested in fighting each other that they hadn't noticed the new entries in the Animorbis. Ness and Ninten slowly walked up to them, but as they inched closer, they were still not noticed.

"I'm the more romantic one, so I should get her!" the orange boy yelled.

"I'm the smarter one, I can figure out what she likes better than you!" the red boy shouted back.

"Uuugh! _That's it_! I was holding back, but now I'm gonna rip you apart!"

"Uh-oh," Ninten mumbled. "We should step in quick—"

" _PK THUNDERSHOCK!_ "

The orange boy's hand trickled with yellow static and shot out electric psions, but the chain of lightning dissipated just one foot after it left his body. "Hah, that all you got?!" the red boy bellowed. "My turn! _PK FIREBOLT!"_

The red boy threw his finger out and spark of fire flickered, but the firebolt disintegrated to the ground just one foot after it left his body.

"Heh-heh! You ain't so good yourself!"

"Neither are you! _PK FIRE…BLAST!"_

"HEY! It's my turn! _PK THUNDERSTORM!"_

The two continued to exchange ill-worded attacks at each other, and the psions from each other's hands merely faded out with each cast. Ness and Ninten silently stared at them. They both knew what they were doing wasn't even a real PSI-Fight because they didn't know the proper invocation words. They weren't even sure if the two kids knew how to fight at all.

"Should… should we even stop them?" Ness asked.

"I mean, at this rate, their psions will deplete on their own without either of them landing an attack. Still, we should probably stop them before they faint by themselves in reality."

Followed by Ness, Ninten stepped closer and called out to them. "Hey, can you guys cut it out?"

The two boys got out of their fighting stances and finally looked to the mercenaries.

"Who the heck are you guys?!" the red boy yelled out.

"Wait, I bet they've got a date with our girl, too!" the orange boy quickly exclaimed.

"No way! She was ours first!"

"Apple Kid, let's kick both their butts!"

"Fine. Truce, Orange Kid?"

"Truce!"

" _She's not even here anymore, and how did you guys make up so quickly_?!" Ninten grumbled under his breath. Ness fretfully sweated.

"Let's not give them a chance to attack!" Apple Kid yelled. "Take this! _PK DRAGONFIRE BREATH!"_

Orange Kid extended his palm out. "Taste some of this! _PK MAGIC MISSILE!"_

The psions fuzzed at their fingers and nothing tangible had come out of their hands.

"Okay, this is giving me a headache," Ninten sighed. "You're just wasting psions! How can you guys not know the basic PK names like _PK Fire_ or _PK Thunder_! Did you even go to school?!"

"Uh, Ninten…"

Apple Kid and Orange Kid stared at each other in surprise. Their faces lit up with smirks, and pointed their hands out again.

Ninten's colors flushed out with self-disappointment. "…Oh."

" _PK Fire!"_

 _"PK Thunder!"_

Two proper shots of elemental psychokinesis expelled from their hands and were sent flying at the older males. They quickly rolled to the side and watched the attacks crash into the wall behind them.

"Ninten!" Ness yelled at him.

"Sorry! Slip of the tongue! But at least now we can fight back. Let's take 'em out!"

"Gotcha! I'll get the Apple Kid!"

Ness sprang in the opposite direction and ducked behind a wall for the moment. Ninten readied his fingers, charging up while anticipating the kids' next attack. Orange Kid was the first to recover and prepped his ability. Spotting Ninten, he sent another wave of electricity.

" _PK Thunder!_ "

Ninten quickly rolled to the side while keeping his fingers charged and safe. As soon as he stood back up, he fired his finger forward.

" _PK Beam, Alpha_!"

The ray of psions blasted Orange Kid, causing him to tumble backwards. His arms and legs flopped just as he landed on the ground.

"What—hey! Not fair!" Apple Kid prepared his next PSI attack.

"Don't forget me!" Ness appeared from the other side of the wall, having leaped over with psion-enhanced feet. He jumped high and then landed on the ground right before Apple Kid, causing a shaky tremble and shockwave that knocked the boy back next to Orange Kid. He had been downed as well.

"Whoa, that was awesome!" Ninten ran up to Ness. He observed down at the damaged ground that Ness created. "…A little bit over the top, don't you think?"

"Well, I didn't feel like punching him…" Ness mentioned.

"Fair enough." He saw that the two boys were still on the ground, not moving a muscle. "Looks like we're done."

"That seemed a little too easy," Ness added.

"Well, they're younger than us, so they probably don't have a lot of psions in the first place," Ninten mentioned. "That, or they used up most of it before we got here."

"Good point. So the job's done?"

"Looks like it. Let's go report to Teddy!"

The two turned around and were about to exit through their PHDs, but failed to notice that the two kids' arms were raised. Each of them sparked whatever remaining ounce of psions they had. With a whisper, they both fired at their opponents.

" _PK Thunder!"_

 _"PK Fire!"_

Ness turned around and saw the kids incoming attack but sensed it too late. "Look out!" He tried to prepare a shield to cover them both, though knew it wouldn't form in time.

" _Shield, Omega!"_

A grand blue wall appeared in front of the mercenaries almost instantaneously, coming out of nowhere. The fire and thunder projectiles crashed into the psion wall but were stopped easily. Seeing that their attacks failed and the last of their usable psions depleted, Apple Kid's and Orange Kid's bodies finally left the Animorbis.

"Whoa… did I do that?" Ness looked at his hand and saw that the shield charged in his hand had yet to leave his body. "No… someone else did?"

"Wasn't me," Ninten told. "I think I know though. Let's get out of here."

 **~W~W~W~**

The Animorbis faded, and the two kids were kneeling on the ground. They sternly glared at the two mercenaries with reddened faces.

"Y-You'll pay for this!" Apple Kid shouted.

"We'll get you another time!" Orange Kid declared.

The two of them ran off in separate directions, leaving the park.

"Good grief…" Ninten sighed.

"Are you both OK?"

Approaching from behind the two was another boy of their age and height. He had blond hair and wore a timorous face but showed just enough genuine concern as he walked up to them.

"You saved us, didn't ya?" Ninten smirked, raising his arms behind his head. "Thanks a bunch!"

The boy grinned and shook his head lightly. "Don't mention it." He then turned to the other person that was with Ninten, his eyes widening after seeing Ness's face. "Oh…! You're…"

"Yes?" Ness inquired.

"You're—I mean… you must be our new partner, Ness, right?" the blond presumed.

"Yes, that's me!" Ness said, smiling. "Today's my first day."

"That's right… ah! I'm Lucas. I don't know if they told you about me yet…"

"They did, and I heard good things about you," Ness assured. "Thanks for saving us. That was a really cool shield you made."

A faint pink painted on the blond's face as he grinned. "It's nothing. I'm glad I arrived in time."

"Speaking of which, what're you doing here?" Ninten asked. "I thought you had another assignment?"

"Actually… I just finished that job, and I was nearby. Teddy sent me over to see if I could help."

" _What, he doesn't trust me to take care of things…_?" Ninten lightly huffed through his nose.

"Um, Ness…" Lucas began. "I've heard some things about you from Paula, the lab director. I was told she gave you a phone and a PHD in one?"

"She did. Did you want to look at it or something?" Ness extended the device gently towards him.

"Ah, if you don't mind…" Lucas took the PHD and held it carefully in his hands. He pressed the home button on it and saw the home screen contents. Not very much was on it for now, but the mere concept seemed to have impressed him well enough as he curiously examined it. He turned the device around, looking at its outside case, and his expression changed slightly as he eyed it from different angles.

"Say, Ness, what's your rank permit?" Lucas asked.

"Uh… rank permit? What's that?" Ness answered.

"...You… you don't have a rank?" Lucas inquired.

"Of course not, he's just an amateur," Ninten told.

"But… if you're a mercenary and you don't have a rank permit, _you can get arrested!_ "

"… ** _OH!_** _"_ Ninten slapped his face with his palm. "That's right, I forgot…"

"Ninten, how could you forget something like that?" Lucas hung his head slightly. "You know, that's why no one has any respect for Medica Mercenaries these days… just forgetting stuff."

Ninten pouted. "Aw, give me a break! It just slipped my mind!"

Lucas sighed in response.

"Am I in trouble?" Ness confirmed.

"As long as we don't say anything," Ninten answered. "But we should get back to the office, because this is a problem."

 **~W~W~W~**

The three of them ventured back to their headquarters together, reporting the completion of their jobs. Immediately after, they explained the situation to Teddy with Ness's lack of a rank permit.

"Oh yeah, a rank permit… that's probably a good idea," Teddy nodded. "But getting a rank permit costs money. Money which we don't have yet."

"Yeah, but no matter how good you are as a mercenary, if you don't have a rank permit registered on your PHD, they'll arrest you!" Lucas explained.

"Well, that's your own business," Teddy shook his head. "It's not my fault if you guys get taken in by the cops."

Lucas tilted his head, placing a finger on his chin. "…I could've sworn that _the law places full responsibility on the employer of a mercenary_."

" ** _WHAT?! SERIOUSLY?!_** " Teddy exclaimed, slamming his hands on the desk. He pinched his head, groaned, and then sighed at the same time. "Urgh… okay. Ninten, I need you to take Ness to go get his rank permit tomorrow. Take some of our emergency funds to pay for his test."

"What, me again?!" Ninten exclaimed. "Well… fine, I guess. He shouldn't have a problem getting a Rank D permit."

"Wait, what's this rank permit thing?" Ness inquired.

"Right, let me explain," Teddy began. " _The law requires that any psychic that relies on their PHD in the workforce must have a rank permit_ , _and have a rank registered onto their PHD._ The ranks go from D to A—the higher the grade, the better your credibility looks. But if you don't have a rank at all, you can't work."

"They say if you want to join the police squad—which works right under the government—you need a Rank A permit," Ninten mentioned.

"Oh yeah, you said something like that before yesterday," Ness nodded.

"Yeah, but seeing how the police actually did yesterday… it didn't seem like Rank A fighting to me."

"Don't say that," Teddy told. "Taking a test and fighting an actual PSI-Fight are totally different."

"What's your rank permit, Ninten?" Ness questioned.

"Me? I'm Rank D." He showed his PHD to Ness's face, pointing at the copper-colored star near the edge of it.

"Huh… and Lucas?" Ness turned his head.

"Um… I'm Rank B." He extended his bracelet forward and pointed at a small silver star placed on it. "This emblem here is proof of it."

"Whoa, that must mean you're really good!" Ness praised.

"Lucas is our ace for a reason," Teddy stated. "But now let's get back to you. You take that Rank D permit test tomorrow. If you don't pass, all our rewards go out the window, including that PHD Paula gave you."

"Ouch… this is a lot of pressure," Ness scratched his head.

Teddy slammed his hands on the desk. "You're getting that rank permit or I'm busted! You better get one! _Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it!_ **_Got it?!_** "

"Okay, okay! I get it—I mean, I'll get it!" Ness settled, trying to calm his boss.

"Good! Ninten, you absolutely have to make sure Ness passes!" Teddy sternly looked at him.

"That's impossible! What do you expect a simple assistant like me to do?"

"Stop complaining! I don't want you coming back until Ness passes! Do what you can!"

"That reminds me," Lucas began. "Ninten, why don't you take the Rank C test while you're there? You've been Rank D for a while…"

"No way!" Ninten responded. "I'm not wasting my money on that! As long as I'm in this business, a Rank D is plenty! _That_ said, isn't it about time you took the Rank A test?"

Lucas shook his head. "Rank A test expenses are too high, and with my salary, I've yet to come close to affording it…"

"..." Ness and Ninten stared at the person responsible for the low salary, with Lucas joining in although a bit more pitiful than the first two.

" _Uh oh… this isn't good_ ," Teddy immediately thought. He cleared his throat. "Ahem! You all worked hard today! You can go home." He immediately hit the button on his automatic chair and railed into the backroom.

"He totally evaded us…" Lucas sighed.

Ninten chuckled at their boss. "We should all go home like he suggested. Ness, after your classes are done tomorrow, you'll meet me at the _Psychic Ranking Department_ in their test hall so you can take the test. Do you know where it is?"

"Not really…" Ness shook his head.

"Hm… do you know where the _Yado Apartments_ are?"

"Know it? I live there."

"Do you? That's cool! It's actually not too far off from there."

Lucas reached out to them. "Actually… my house is further down from the apartments you live at. If you don't mind, I can walk with you home and show you where you need to go."

"Really? That'd be great, Lucas! I'll leave it to you." Ninten began heading out the door, waving at his partners. "Make sure you're not late, Ness!"

"I won't!" Ness waved back. He then turned to Lucas. "Well, I've got nothing else to do. Ready to go now?"

Lucas nodded. "Yes, let's."

 **~W~W~W~**

The walk had been silent and awkward from the headquarters and down the path towards Ness's residence. Even though Ness tried to break the ice once about how nice the weather was these days, Lucas responded rather apathetically with a quiet voice. Since then, Ness tried to figure out what was on his mind, as the blond seemed so concerned about something staring at the ground most of the time they travelled.

Eventually, they turned the corner and neared the entrance of the complex. Looking at the fork in the road that was directly in front of the entrance, Lucas pointed towards it.

"If you just take the road down that way and pass the neighborhood park, the building will be on your left side eventually."

"Past the park, huh? I've never been that far."

"It's not that far of a walk, so no need to worry."

Ness nodded. "Right. Thanks a lot, Lucas."

Lucas shook his head daintily. "It's no problem."

Ness grinned at him. "Well, I'll see you at work another time, I guess? Hope we can work together sometime soon."

Before Ness could walk away, Lucas shyly reached his hand out, stopping just a few inches from his chest. "Wait—!"

Ness turned back around. "Yeah?"

Lucas closed the distance by a few steps and stared straight into Ness's face. The latter blinked nervously, unsure of what the blond was trying to do. While he remained silent and standing, he noticed Lucas's eyes were strange—stranger than he thought of his own. The blond's eyes were a regular blue, but he noticed a large block in the bottom portion of his irises were an obvious brighter blue, almost like a cyan. Ness remained silent as he stared back into those curious eyes until Lucas stepped back.

"Is something wrong?" Ness asked.

"…Your violet eyes are beautiful," Lucas uttered.

"Huh? Uh… thank you?"

Lucas gasped lightly, and then shook his head. "I…I'm sorry, it must sound weird coming from me. It's just I've never seen anyone with colors like yours before."

"No, it was just out of the _blue_ —er, nowhere. Actually, you're the first person ever to say anything nice about my eyes."

"Really? Have you been made fun of because of them before?"

"Yeah, actually…" Ness meekly grinned, remembering the past. "A lot of kids thought I looked like some kind of freak while I was in grade school. That is, until PSIentists released a study on eye color possibly being a link with PSI powers, and it made its way into our PSIence lessons for a bit."

"Oh, I remember that," Lucas nodded. "It wasn't a topic that was covered largely since the study is still being observed, but it was interesting to learn about."

"I'm guessing you were interested because of your eyes, too?" Ness inquired directly.

Lucas slightly grinned. "You got me. I wasn't really self-conscious about my eye colors, though…"

"What is that condition?" Ness asked.

"Segmental heterochromia, they call it," Lucas answered. "It's nothing too impressive."

"I'd say your eyes are very interesting," Ness returned the compliment, hoping to elicit a bigger smile from the blond.

Instead, Lucas's face flushed pinker and he put a hand over his mouth, as if trying to hide the smile Ness sought. "Right, um—I should get going. I'll see you another time?" Lucas tried to walk past Ness, but this time he reached out to him.

"Hey, do you go to school tomorrow?" Ness called out. "We could have lunch together or something."

Lucas perked up. "Oh, sure! My classes finish at noon, though…"

"That's fine! I'll meet you at the cafeteria then!"

The blond smiled again, and then waved farewell before turning and walking away. Ness watched him leave the area, and then he entered his apartment complex.

"Lucas, huh… what an interesting guy."


	5. The Rank D Test

Chapter 5: The Rank D Test

…

…

…

Ness sprang from his bed instinctively, right as Tracy entered his room. He turned his head to the door and saw his sister, amazed.

"Whoa, did you sense me or something?!" she gasped.

"I dunno… I just did _not_ want to wake up to you yelling at me again."

Tracy snickered after hearing the remark, acting proudly. "My yelling helped you then! You can wake up on your own now. Let's hope you can keep that up."

"Great," Ness grumbled, still half-asleep. "Whatever. I'll meet you outside."

"You got it!"

Tracy left the room, and Ness performed his morning routine: making his bed, getting dressed, and then taking his morning breakfast pill. As he swallowed it, he craved to eat a real breakfast someday… but that wasn't possible for now. He had to live off cheap, and he was thankful the apartments endorsed free morning pills.

With the last of his morning weariness gone, Ness jumped out of the apartment and met with his sister at the complex entrance. As usual, Jackie and Tessie greeted the two of the liveliest tenants in the complex.

"Good morning!" Jackie called out. "Good luck with your test later today!"

"Thanks," Ness smiled at him.

"…So what kind of prank do you have to pull to pass this test?"

"What—no! It's not a _prank_ test, it's a _rank_ test!"

"Aw, I'm sorry," Jackie frowned. "I'm really trying, but I don't get all this psychic mumbo jumbo."

"Jackie, I told you this last night…" Tessie sighed at him. "In order to work as a psychic, you need to have a rank permit. To get one, you have to pass a test."

Jackie hummed questionably. "So… it sounds like if you don't pass this test, you don't keep your job?"

Ness meekly exacerbated. "Yeah… that's right."

"Well, that's just terrible!" Jackie exclaimed. "You better be well prepared!"

Tracy gripped her brother's hand. "Ness will do fine! I believe in him!"

"You heard her," Ness agreed. "The test isn't until after school. That said… we should get going."

"Oh, you're right! See you later!"

Tracy dragged her brother out of the complex, waving goodbye as they left.

 **~W~W~W~**

As Ness sat in his seat, he wondered why regular school only persisted two days a week. He figured there should be so much more knowledge about the world they lived in, but there really wasn't besides advancing the basic core skills. His language arts was passing, and his math skills were decent, and he has yet to show off his PSI in class. The professor was still going over the basics of PSI, ensuring that every student was aware before testing out their strength in the future.

"I believe we're all familiar with the basics of _psychokinesis,"_ the teacher stated to the class, "but let's refresh on _PSI Tiers._ "

"What's so psychic about crying?" blurted a student.

A few chuckled among the room, including the teacher. "No, no. Not _tears_ as in crying. _Tiers_ , as in levels of power." She clicked a button on her presentation, and explained the definition of each tier.

"Most PSI abilities have multiple levels of power. As you gain experience from PSI-Fights or grow older, your psions will become stronger over time, and your PHD will be able to process new forms of psionic energy. However, not everyone will grow at the same rate, but regardless _, when your psions grow to a certain point, you will be able to use stronger variants of PSI_. Most of the time with PK, it is an upgraded version of PK you often use, and they tend to pack more powerful punches at the cost of using more psions. We separate these upgrades to previous levels of PK in power tiers as follows…"

 _Base:_ The first power tier.

 _Alpha_ : The second power tier.

 _Beta_ : The third power tier, and _first upgrade_.

 _Gamma_ : The fourth power tier.

 _Omega:_ The final upgrade, and the fifth and most powerful tier known in existence."

A student raised his hand. "What's the _Base tier_? Don't all psychics start off with _Alpha_ PSI?"

The teacher nodded. "That is right. Everyone's first PSI ability has an _Alpha_ tier from the get-go. But what many people tend to forget is that there is one level less than Alpha. _Base_ is using a PSI ability at its _bare_ _minimum_. _When a Base PSI is conjured, you use just enough psions to form your ability at its weakest level._ Simply shouting out the name of your PSI ability, without evoking a power tier upgrade, does this. For example, _PK Fire_ and _PK Fire, Alpha_. Not many people use Base level PSI since it's so weak, but because it uses less psions, _it charges the fastest_ , which can make for quick attacks when you need them."

Ness recalled back to when he and Ninten fought two-on-two at the burglary the day before. There was an instance where Ninten used _PK Beam_ without a tier upgrade, successfully hitting one of them and knocking them into a wall. Either Ninten had stronger psions, or the burglars innately had very weak psions, but just the bare minimum PK Beam was enough to cause major impact.

Ness then remembered when he and Ninten had their training fight at the gym yesterday. He used _PK Rockin_ for the first time without an _Alpha_ upgrade. He had high expectations that just the bare minimum of an already strong PK was enough to knockout his previously weakened opponent, and he ended up being right. Was it just the PK, or were his psions innately strong as he was told? He wasn't sure yet, he'd need more battle experience to be certain.

Then, there was the fight at the park with Apple Kid and Orange Kid—they refused to use _Alpha_ tier PK… _maybe they didn't know about such basic knowledge,_ but that's highly unlikely. It's grade-school level knowledge, after all.

The teacher continued the explanation. "Now, note, while we have multiple power tiers, some PSI abilities may not exist in certain tiers. For example, the defensive _PSI Shield_ exists in only Base, Alpha, or Omega form—there have been no reports of a Beta or Gamma level of _PSI Shield_ existing. Even then, _only very experienced and strong psychics can muster Omega tier PSI without a problem_ , so you'll have to do lots of growing before you can reach _Omega_. Needless to say, that goes for _any_ PSI ability you learn."

The next memory Ness recalled was back to yesterday when he was saved by Lucas at Polestar Park. He remembered hearing him shout _Omega_ to create that very large shield that mitigated both of his opponents' attacks. That situation made him wonder just how strong Lucas was on many points… for one, his shield was strong, but that was probably because it was _Omega_ level. Secondly, he couldn't have foreseen the attacks, so he must have seen them at the last second. And even then, he mustered the shield very quickly to protect both him and Ninten in time. To conjure the highest level of PSI in the shortest amount of time… the thought of working with Lucas someday just only got more intriguing to him.

 **~W~W~W~**

At the end of the lesson, Ness beelined straight to the cafeteria. It was just a little past 12 o'clock, which means Lucas was either already there or on the way. Upon arrival, he discovered the blond was the former.

"Oh, Lucas!" Ness called out to him on sight.

Lucas perked up and turned to the entrance. He hurried to his co-worker's side. Together, they waited in line and grabbed their meals, and then found a place to sit together.

"You're… eating an omelet?"

Ness now noticed what his companion brought to the table just as they sat down. It was simply a folded yellow fluff of egg, with a side of toast and a glass of milk.

"Looks more like a breakfast meal than lunch," he commented. Lucas showed a small frown, looking almost hurt. Ness quickly followed up. "I mean, it's not like it's a bad thing! I mean, if you like it, that's all that matters, right?"

"Right…" Lucas uttered. "It's… comfort food."

"Sorry. I wouldn't know… I've stopped eating breakfast because I couldn't afford to. That's why I take the breakfast pill nowadays."

"Ah, the pills," Lucas nodded. "Speaking of which, do you take any other pills? Like… the psion enhancement ones? More than you should be taking, maybe?"

"Are you asking if I take them illegally?" Ness smirked.

"...Oh. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that."

"I'm kidding. No, I don't need them. I'm told my psions were strong enough already."

"It's all natural?" Lucas questioned. "Huh…"

Ness nudged an eyebrow, curious and intrigued with Lucas's reactions. "Is there something about my PSI you're curious about?"

"Oh, um… well, I heard you were really strong. I'm just curious _how_ strong, is all."

Ness hummed in agreement. "Well, I'd say the best way to know for sure is through a PSI-Fight. Wanna have one?"

"You and me?" Lucas repeated, surprised. "I… we shouldn't here, I mean. It'd attract attention."

"I heard you're strong, too, from Teddy. And what better way to get attention than two strong psychics having a sparring match? We'd be pretty popular."

Lucas shook his head. "That's the thing. I don't want that."

"You don't?"

Lucas nodded, hanging his head low. " _It's overwhelming enough just being here_ …" he mouthed quietly.

Ness poked his food for the first time. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. I thought everyone liked the attention of showing off."

"That's probably true for most people who have a PHD here, but not me."

"Right. Sorry."

Lucas shook his head. "Don't be."

The two took their moments in eating their food. It was another awkward silence in the midst of loud chatter within the cafeteria. Thankfully no eyes were on them and that everyone else was focused with their own conversations, or else each of them would feel a little bit more unpleasant. As much as Lucas wanted to try and get to know his new co-worker, it was more difficult than both of them thought. Only when Ness finally say how flustered he was—looking back and forth between him and his tray of food—that he realized he needed to keep breaking the ice if he was going to get anywhere.

"So, you're Rank B?" Ness asked.

"I am."

"Was it hard to get?"

Lucas shook his head lightly. "Not very."

"…Any tips on getting my Rank D permit?"

Lucas shook his head, again. "I think you'll be fine."

"Because it's the lowest rank, it's the easiest?"

"That's right."

"Well, that's just kind of worse for me, because if I fail, then I'd be a total loser."

Lucas covered his mouth, as if trying to hide his smile. Ness saw the change of expression just by looking at the blond's cheeks stretch, and grinned that he was able to get such a reaction.

As he uncovered his face, the smile that was just on him could be seen faintly. "As long as you got enough sleep, you'll be fine."

"Alright. Thanks."

The two eventually finished their meal, and then they handed their trays in for cleaning. Without anything else to do, they left the cafeteria and began making their way towards the school entrance.

"You have to go take your test now, right?" Lucas questioned.

Ness nodded. "Yeah, I do. I should go before Ninten worries."

"OK. I'll see you another time."

Ness took one step forward, but retreated back and turned back to the blond. "Actually, before I do… could have your phone number?"

"Huh?"

"Well, we're co-workers now, right? We can call each other if we need help with a job or something."

"Oh, yes… I guess that's a good idea."

Ness pulled out his PHD and navigated to the appropriate menu before handing it towards the blond. "Here, go ahead and punch in your number."

Lucas dialed the number appropriately and then handed it to Ness. After successfully saving the contact, he sent a text message to Lucas's phone. Before anything else, Ness's phone immediately rang with Ninten's name on the caller ID. He answered it quickly.

"Ness here. What's up?"

" _Hey, you coming to the test hall or what_?" Ninten questioned.

"I'm on the way, I just got out of school. I'll be there soon."

" _OK! See you_!"

Ness ended the call and glanced at Lucas, who kept staring at him. "Do you want to come with?"

Lucas shook his head. "I have to pass. I have something important to do."

"Important? Like a job?"

"Um, yeah… you could say that."

"Well, all right then. Good luck with your assignment. Call me if you need help, OK?"

"Thanks, Ness. Good luck at your test."

They nodded at each other and Ness left first, waving as he jogged off. Lucas silently watched as the other male distanced farther away, and then looked to the direction of the PSIence Research Lab.

 **~W~W~W~**

The _Psychic Ranking Department._ Split into two sections, the entire building was funded by the government, and dedicated to ensuring all psychic workforce personnel had a valid ranking permit. The west wing was for revalidating expired rank permits. The east wing was for testing examinees for new rank permits, which was Ness's destination. The entire hall was visible regardless of which side you were on, and it did not seem there were many people in the building.

There was only one receptionist at the center circular counter as of now. The occupied girl was being flirted by a familiar face. Ness expected to see him be in the progress of in the presence of a cute young lady, and rolled his eyes playfully as he approached them.

"Sooo, your name's Pippi? That's a cute name!" Ninten complimented. "Now, how about it? Tell me your phone number? If something were to… y'know, happen to you—I could rescue you. I could even give you a discount!"

"A discount? Is that supposed to impress me?" Pippi smirked. "Still… you've got a kind of… naïve charm."

"See! I'm charming!" Ninten boasted. He took a nearby piece of paper and pen, offering it delicately to the girl. "Here, write it down here…"

Pippi smiled slyly and took the pen and paper, writing it down carefully on the desk. As Ninten turned around and silently celebrated his success, he jumped at the sight of his team mate. "Whoa! Sorry, I didn't see you there, Ness."

Ness shook his head. "It's fine. So, what do I do to take the test?"

"Ah, don't worry too much about it. I already registered you." Ninten handed him a formal-looking card with Ness's information on it. It consisted of his name, a test ID number, and the level of rank he was going to test. "All you need to do is go take it at any one of the exam booths. You stand in front of the machine, _insert your exam card_ , and then _place your PHD onto the green area on the exam machine_."

Ness pulled out his PHD. In both of his hands were the required items, and he nodded to Ninten. "Got it."

"All right! And remember, you better pass! If you don't, Teds is going to chew me out…"

Ninten turned around and returned to the receptionist. "So, where were we? Oh, your number! Now, let's say you weren't calling me for help: how about a nice and romantic date at…"

Ness walked past Ninten and headed to one of the exam booths. Looking around at those that were already here, he saw typical civilians and police officers spread around the entire hall standing near or right beside the booths. He noticed a couple of individuals in the midst of a PSI-Fight… with the exam machine. It seems he was expected to fight as part of the test, which shouldn't be much of a problem with his abilities. He looked at the unoccupied booth in front of him, and stepped forward.

Ness inserted his exam card in the designated slot. The visual screen on the exam machine changed and prompted him to continue.

" _Welcome, Applicant Ness_ ," the computer displayed. " _Will you start the test_?"

Ness took one deep breath before answering with a yes, hitting the green accept button. "Gotta do my best," he told himself after.

" _Please place PHD onto the designated green panel._ " An image was displayed to help guide the examinee. Ness put his PHD down and watched the machine scan his PHD. After two swipes, the computer made two quick confirmation beeps.

" _Thank you, Applicant Ness. Your test will immediately begin. This is a test for a Rank D permit. The first test is of knowledge. Select the single answer that is correct to the following questions."_

The knowledge exam was simple multiple choice and tested what was easily considered beginner's knowledge about PSI and psychics. Ness managed to answer every question without thinking too hard.

* * *

 _What is the name of a person who can use supernatural mind abilities?  
A. Physician. __**B. Psychic**_ _. C. Psycho._

 _What is the branch of knowledge or study of psychic powers termed as?  
A. Science B. Psychology __**C.**_ _ **PSIence**_

 _What device is required to engage in a PSI-Fight?  
_ _ **A. Psion Helper Device**_ _B. Psychic's Handy Tool C. Psion Assistant Gadget_

 _What is the name of the imaginary arena where psychics fight?  
A. Anime __**B. Animorbis**_ _C. Anima Orb_

 _What rank permit is required in order to join the police squad?  
_ _ **A. Rank A**_ _B. Rank B C. Rank C_

 _What is the city's largest PSI research center also known as?  
A. Labradory __**B. Laboratory**_ _C. Lavatory_

 _Which of the following PK abilities are non-elemental?  
A. PK Freeze B. PK Thunder __**C. PK Beam**_

 _The proper name of this testing hall is…  
A. __**Psychic Ranking Department**_ _B. Psychic Licensing Department C. Psychic Ranking Apartments_

 _What question number are we on?  
A. 8_ _th_ _question._ _ **B. 9**_ _ **th**_ _ **question**_ _. C. 10_ _th_ _question._

 _Which of the following is not a classified power tier of PSI abilities?  
_ _ **A. Theta**_ _B. Omega C. Gamma_

* * *

" _End of questions. Knowledge test complete. Your results are as follows:_ _ **100 points.**_ _Congratulations. you have passed the knowledge test."_

Ness pumped his fist close to his chest, having a quiet celebration to himself.

" _The next test is skill. You must now fight an AI. Defeat your opponent to pass the test. Please take your PHD and enter the Animorbis that forms."_

Just as Ness retrieved his PHD into his clasp, a visible fuzzy orb appeared between him and the monitor. He activated his PHD and jumped in.

 **~W~PSI~W~**

The arena was vague of color, looking rather digital. The only visible objects Ness could easily spot where himself and the figure before him.

The AI was like a mannequin painted blue. It lacked a face, hair, and any other distinguishable human characteristics. It took a battle stance before speaking a robotic-like voice.

" _The battle will now begin._ "

Ness took the same stance as his opponent, ready to use whatever ability was appropriate.

The AI's right hand began to glow yellow, charging with electric psions. Ness had an idea of what attack was coming, and looked to the nearest set of walls to jump behind. Imparting just a tiny bit of psions to his feet, he readied himself for the right moment.

" _PK Thunder, Beta._ "

The AI sliced its hand forward, sending waves of lightning at Ness. The sudden use of a _Beta_ PK had caught Ness off guard for just a moment, and though he jumped to the side, his right torso had been struck. In addition to a power upgrade, _PK Thunder Beta_ seemed to have a wider range, scratching Ness just enough.

As Ness jumped to the side, his psion-enhanced feet sent him far enough to leap over to the other end of the wall. He crunched from the injury on the right side of his body, feeling his abdomen sizzling with small traces of electricity. He stepped over to the next corner of the wall, and poked his head out.

After a really long moment, the AI appeared and it seemed to be walking. It seemed to know where Ness was, but it took its time approaching his direction. Ness decided to use this opportunity to test something. With another psion-enhanced dash, he hurried to his right and turned the corner, waiting right at the wall.

Looking down at his body, he spotted where the damage was, although it wasn't physically visible. The sensation of pain from the attack was enough for him to recognize the immediate area. Poking his head out once more, the AI failed to show up speedily. Then, he placed his hand on his injured area.

" _Life-Up, Alpha."_

A green light glowed from Ness's hand, and he felt a soothing sensation emitting wrapping his torso. As informed before, the psions were recognizing the damage sustained, and were trying to reverse the harm dealt to him. If the opposite of pain was a sense close to comfort, then it was what Ness felt, and it was strangely relaxing as the ability healed his body.

After a moment, the green glow faded, and he no longer felt the sense of injury on himself. Looking out the corner again, he saw the AI just about to turn the corner. Ness noted his observations of his own healing PSI, and decided to come back to it later. For now, he charged his signature PK to his hands.

Right as the turned to face Ness's direction, it immediately saw him and pointed out its arm again.

" _PK Rockin, Alpha!_ " A spray of red, yellow, and blue lights shot out from Ness's hand, flying straight at his enemy.

" _Shield._ " A wide-ranged shield emitted from the AI's hand, spreading all around him. However, Ness's attack managed to break through and scratch his opponent with his attack, albeit weakened due to the shield's impact. It was enough to knock the AI into a kneeling position, mimicking a staggered stance as if to recover from damage.

His opponent was clearly open for more attacks, and Ness was not going to let that chance slip by. he mustered freeform psions into his legs and feet, and dashed forward. The psions imparted into his lower muscles increased his muscle speed and essentially his distance coverage, and without any time to react, he was right in the AI's face. Focusing just a bit more psions into his feet, he swung his leg forward, scoring his first psion-enhanced kick.

The AI figure was easily sent flying, hitting the wall a few meters behind him. The blow and the impact of the wall combined dealt tremendous damage and was enough to end the battle. The blue mannequin fuzzed and then faded, and the computer from outside buzzed.

 **~W~W~W~**

 _"Whew, that was really easy…_ " Ness sighed as he returned to the real world. The computer screen in front of him prompted additional information just as the Animorbis disappeared.

" _Congratulations. You have passed the Rank D permit test. Your PHD is now registered as Rank D. Please also take the copper emblem and place it onto your PHD."_

A small token was ejected from another compartment of the machine, and Ness retrieved it. It was a copper star similar to Ninten's as he had seen yesterday. He decided to place it onto the back of his PHD, near the top edge, and it stuck just perfectly.

Ness walked back to the reception desk, still seeing Ninten going at it.

"Cool, so I'll call you tonight?" he questioned to the girl, who giggled in response. She noticed Ness and pointed at him, and Ninten turned around. "Oh, Ness! You done? Did you pass?"

Ness held up his PHD and showed the copper star to him. "Piece of cake!"

"That's great!" Ninten cheered. "Well, we've got nothing else to do here. Let's get back to the office."

"OK!"

Ness walked out of the building first with Ninten following behind, but he waved one last time at the receptionist. "I'll see ya later, Pippi!" He winked at her right before he left for good.

 **~W~W~W~**

The two arrived back at the Medica Mercenaries headquarters, and walked right up to Teddy. He had his hand pinching his forehead, so he was unable to see the smiles on their faces.

"How did it go? Don't tell me you failed…" Teddy uttered lowly.

"It's OK, Teds," Ninten told. "Thanks to my training, he passed!"

" _Your training?"_ Ness thought silently.

Teddy let out a big sigh and smiled widely. "Whew! Now Ness is a true mercenary."

"So, now that that's done, give us some jobs, Teds. We'll get 'em done." Ninten pumped his fist proudly.

"About that… I haven't received any job offers, so we're still broke."

"What?! Aw man…"

"But since Ness took his test today, I already decided to give you the rest of the day off, so it's not like you were going to do anything. That said… Ninten, you go take Ness home."

"What?! Come on, Teds! Why do I gotta be this guy's babysitter?! I've got some business to take care of. I wanna leave right now!"

"Listen, if you two are gonna be partners in this business, you ought to spend some… quality time together. Chat on the way home. Get to know one another."

Ninten squinted. "Partners? Why can't Lucas be his partner?'

"Because Lucas isn't here right now, he'll get his turn later. Besides, he can handle himself…" Teddy then slammed the desk. "AND YOU'RE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME TO HIRE NESS IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Ninten hung his head. " _Man… why! Why does everything bad always happen to me?!"_

Ness chuckled nervously as he tugged Ninten's sleeve. "Come on, let's go." Ninten still carried a sad expression as he walked out of the office with him.

 **~W~W~W~**

"Hmm… your dad, huh? I'm really sorry to hear."

Ninten inquired about Ness's family as they headed to Ness's apartment. Ness had just explained how the last time he met his dad was when he was younger, and that he passed away after years of no contact.

"And he gave you that weird-looking hat?"

"It's not weird, it's cool," Ness responded, holding a hand to his hat-covered head.

"Well, I've never seen anything like it these days."

"It's supposed to be fashioned off the style of an old outdoor game called baseball. Baseball players wore these when they were playing."

"Seriously? Playing a game with hats on? Sounds kind of lame."

"It wasn't all about the hats—"

"—Big brother! Welcome home!"

Tracy rushed down the steps and hugged his brother's waist. "How was the test? Did you pass?"

"I sure did," Ness answered. "Oh, Ninten… this is my sister, Tracy."

"Oh, nice to meet you, Tracy!" Ninten greeted.

"Who is he, Ness?"

Ness grinned as he motioned his hand towards his companion. "This is one of my teammates from work. His name's Ninten."

" _Ninten_?" Tracy gasped. "What a weird name!"

"It's not weird, it's cool!" Ninten mimicked what Ness had previously said, and the latter giggled in response.

"Sorry, Ninten," Ness chuckled. "Tracy, go on back and get dinner ready. I'll be up soon."

"OK!" Tracy headed back up the stairs, waving at Ninten before leaving their sight.

Ninten cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "Anyways, as of today, you're a full-fledged mercenary. We're expecting you to do your best!"

"Of course!" Ness nodded. "I won't let you guys down."

"Great. We'll see you at work tomorrow morning. Take care, OK?"

"Got it. Take care, Ninten."

With the last farewell of the day, Ness headed up the stairs and made his way to his room. Ninten watched him leave and then snickered to himself.

"OK… gotta get back home and call Pippi for a date! Can't wait!"

Ninten happily scampered out of the apartment complex, not knowing that the piece of paper holding the phone number had slipped out of his back pocket. The paper was silently whiffed into the air from the male's running speed, and glided gently right over to the mat of a nearby apartment door.

An older man had just arrived at the apartment complex, walking up to the said front door. He was thinking about how happy he was to see his family after a hard work day. Before keying himself in, he noticed the piece of paper with a phone number on it.

After letting out a quick, questioned mumble, the door in front of him opened quickly, and his children were there to greet him. He stuck the paper in his pocket and decided to deal with it later.


End file.
